Sarah Sands

Sarah Sands (née Harvey; 3 June 1961) is a British journalist and author who is the editor of the London Evening Standard.

Early life/education

Sands is the sister of Kit Hesketh-Harvey (of musical duo Kit and The Widow). She was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent in 1961, and was educated at Kent College, Pembury (then a Methodist, now interdenominational) independent day and boarding school for girls. She later attended Goldsmiths College, University of London.[1]

Life and career

Sands trained on The Sevenoaks Courier as a news reporter, before moving to the Evening Standard, initially as editor of the Londoner's Diary, before taking further posts as features editor and associate editor. She joined The Daily Telegraph in 1996 as deputy editor, under Charles Moore, later assuming responsibility for the Saturday edition.

Sands was appointed the first female editor of The Sunday Telegraph in June 2005, succeeding Dominic Lawson. Her masterplan for the November 2005 relaunch of the paper was that it should be "like an iPod – full of your favourite things".[2] In an abrupt move, after just eight months and 20 days in post, Sands was sacked as editor of the newspaper on 7 March 2006 and replaced by Patience Wheatcroft.[3] Subsequently, many of her changes under her editorship were reversed (including changes to the title font).

Sands has written two novels: her first was Playing the Game and her second, Hothouse, was published during the summer of 2005.

Later career

In April 2006, Sands was appointed consultant editor on the Daily Mail; in February 2008 she was appointed editor-in-chief of the UK edition of Reader's Digest.[4]

In August 2006, Sands wrote an article about the Emo musical genre, which stated that Green Day and My Chemical Romance encourage self-harm among teenagers, despite Green Day having tenuous links to the emo genre and My Chemical Romance advising their fans not to commit self-harm.[5]

My Chemical Romance, on hearing about this article while on tour in the UK, led a chant of "fuck the Daily Mail" (as Sands's article ran in this newspaper) during one of their live shows.[6] Kerrang! magazine in particular took offence at the article.[7]

In February 2009 it was announced that she would be taking up the role of deputy editor on The Evening Standard.[8] She became editor of the Evening Standard following Geordie Greig's departure for the Mail on Sunday in March 2012.[9]

References

  1. ['I want the paper to be like your iPod', The Guardian, 20 June 2005]
  2. "The media column – Peter Wilby bids farewell to Sarah Sands", New Statesman, 13 March 2006
  3. Mark Seewney "Sarah Sands joins Reader's Digest", The Guardian online, 21 February 2008. Accessed on 21 February 2008.
  4. Sarah Sands "EMO cult warning for parents", Daily Mail, 16 August 2006
  5. Kerrang! News
  6. Chemical reaction in the Emo world, Sarah Sands, TES, 11 May, 2008
  7. Mark Sweney "Sarah Sands named deputy editor of London Evening Standard", The Guardian, 20 February 2009
  8. "Sarah Sands is new editor of London Evening Standard". The Guardian. 30 March 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2012.

External links

Media offices
Preceded by
Simon Heffer and Veronica Wadley
Deputy Editor of the Daily Telegraph
1995–2005
Succeeded by
Neil Darbyshire and William Lewis
Preceded by
Dominic Lawson
Editor of The Sunday Telegraph
2005–2006
Succeeded by
Patience Wheatcroft
Preceded by
Andrew Bordiss
Deputy Editor of the Evening Standard
2009–2012
Succeeded by
Ian Walker
Preceded by
Geordie Greig
Editor of the Evening Standard
2012–present
Incumbent