Women and Journalism

11

‘Postmodern journalism’ and its implications for women

Rosie Boycott, one of the founders of the British feminist magazine Spare Rib and one of the first women to edit a British national daily, resigned her position as the editor of the Daily Express in January 2001 when she found that the paper had been bought by a pornography publisher, Richard Desmond, for £125 million. The Guardian commented: ‘It was a marriage made in hell – the founder of Spare Rib in bed with the owner of Asian Babes, 40-Plus and 50 and Over, and 40 other pornographic magazines’ (Hattenstone 2002: 2). Boycott told the Guardian that having sacked a pregnant woman and evicting staff without notice, Desmond was intent on reporting only ‘positive news’ in the Daily Express ...