Former Sunday Express editor Martin Townsend has died at the age of 65 after battling pancreatic cancer for 18 months.
Townsend was editor of the Sunday Express for 17 years from 2001 to 2018. He headed exclusives including breaking the news of Prince Harry’s romance with Meghan Markle, started an award-winning Crusade for Better Mental Health campaign, and played a “key part” in freeing staff reporter Yvonne Ridley after she was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Townsend has been described as the youngest columnist in Fleet Street in 1985 when he joined the Today newspaper aged 25. He spent seven years freelancing for newspapers then became showbusiness editor of the Mail on Sunday’s You magazine.
Townsend then joined celebrity magazine OK!, editing it for four years, during which time he had the world exclusives on the weddings of David and Victoria Beckham and Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones. He then spent 17 years leading the Sunday Express.
Townsend wrote of his time at the paper: “Under my leadership, the Sunday Express rivalled our higher budget, market leading competitors by breaking a number of world exclusives. These include the previously secret relationship between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and the notorious expenses controversy that led to the resignation of former Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.”
After leaving the Sunday Express in August 2018 Townsend moved into PR, joining communications firm Pagefield as a partner.
Outside of journalism, Townsend wrote a book titled The Father I Had, a personal account of growing up with a father who had bipolar disorder.
Kirsty Buchanan, former political editor of the Sunday Express under Townsend, said on Linkedin: “If you have a stereotype in mind about how a tabloid newspaper editor behaves, then you were probably never lucky enough to meet Martin Townsend. He was kind-hearted, generous, thoughtful, a little mischievous and very, very funny.
“He valued loyalty and laughter and bore the vicissitudes of a challenging newsroom with barbed humour rather than fiery anger.
“He campaigned for better mental health support in the workplace long before it was fashionable and championed women into roles that were more often the preserve of men. He loved journalism about as much as anyone I’ve ever met in the profession and never lost the thrill of hearing a good line for the first time.”
Former OK! Magazine editor-in-chief Lisa Byrne described Townsend as “the best boss of all time. No better writer and editor came out of Fleet Street.”
A commenter on the Express obituary to Townsend who said they wrote occasional features for him described the editor as “a thoroughly nice man, with a fabulous sense of humour, who ran a happy ship with a happy crew”.
GB News presenter Camilla Tominey, who worked for Townsend as Sunday Express royal editor and then its political editor, said: “Journalism has lost a giant and a gentleman. I have lost a dear friend and mentor, to whom I owe so much.
“Those who knew Martin Townsend will remember him as a creative genius, a maverick editor, and an unparalleled scoop-getter. He also wrote like a dream.
“He cared deeply about his readers and always had the courage of his convictions. He championed better mental health before it was fashionable and wrote an incredible book about his late father, which won a Mind award.”
Current Express editor-in-chief Geoff Maynard said: “A giant of the industry, a wonderfully talented journalist, a thoroughly nice human being and of course an Express legend has gone.
“We send our very best wishes to his family at this sad time.”
Former chief reporter of the Sunday Express Shekhar Bhatia said: “Martin was an extremely humble but equally brilliant editor and always a pleasure to talk to. He listened intensively to stories and always made sound judgements. His contacts book was full of A-list celebrities and he was universally admired in our industry. A huge loss.”
Townsend was married to Daily Star agony aunt Jane O’Gorman, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. He died on 17 October at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.
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