Draft:Peter Whitehead (Journalist)

• Comment: A journalist with a 30-year career is extremely likely to meet our notability criteria. But can you please clean up this draft, so that footnotes are in the correct locations, and there are no external links in the body of the article? Thank you. asilvering (talk) 22:00, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

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Peter Whitehead worked as a Financial Times journalist for 27 years, from 1987-2014. He joined as a sub-editor on the UK news pages when the FT was based at Bracken House, near St Paul’s Cathedral; became editorial training manager in 1991, by which time the FT had moved to No.1 Southwark Bridge; and then joined the Weekend FT department as its Production Editor in 1993. When Robert Thomson took over from Max Wilkinson as Weekend FT editor, he made Whitehead his deputy. In 2002, Whitehead was made Surveys Editor, in charger of the FT’s specialist subject supplements, which he re-launched as Special Reports [2]. Whitehead then chose to return to a more hands-on editing role, taking charge of the weekly Digital Business section in 2006, which he redesigned and where he launched a podcast series [11] focusing on a vast spectrum of business-related IT topics. [8] [10] [13] In early 2010, Whitehead wrote the outline for a book that looked at how artificial intelligence, robotics and the digitisation of the world’s knowledge would combine to produce ever-more sophisticated machines. Before the book could be written, Whitehead was asked by FT Editor Lionel Barber to launch a new FT supplement [1] on Executive Appointments and to take charge of the editorial aspects of an embryonic FT Non-Executive Directors’ Club. [7] [12] This venture proved to be both innovative and commercially valuable. [3] [4] [5] [9] Whitehead took early retirement in 2014 to pursue his other interests: writing, music, travel, sport and voluntary work.

Whitehead was born and educated in south Northamptonshire (Blisworth primary school and Sponne School, Towcester) before gaining a Law degree from the London School of Economics (1976-1979). Straight after university, he became a trainee reporter for the Northampton Chronicle and Echo evening newspaper [6]. As a senior reporter and sub-editor he worked in Northampton and for the Coventry Evening Telegraph. From there, he moved to London in 1986, working briefly for Golf World magazine before joining the FT the following year.

In 2011, Whitehead released “Lori, Sam and Mary”, a music album covering 12 songs by his favourite American singer-songwriters. In 2019, he published “The Rise of Antisocialism”, his book examining business’s takeover of society and how consumption, materialism and selfishness had grown to dominate. [14] In 2023, he released a music album of original songs he had written, or co-written, called “All The Notes There Is”. In 2024, he published “Class Mates”, a collection of memoirs written by a group of former LSE students, including a foreword by politician and author David Willetts. [15] Also in 2024, he published “Downsizing”, a play about the conflict between the preservation of communities and the need for development. Whitehead is a regular musical performer and has acted in plays at a local amateur level. He writes a blog, chronicling current affairs, which he is currently preparing to publish in book form in 2025. He is also planning an updated edition of “The Rise of Antisocialism”.

Whitehead lives in Claygate, Surrey, with his wife, Grania. They have two grown-up daughters.