Peter Stothard

Who is Peter Stothard?

Sir Peter Stothard is a British newspaper editor. He currently edits the Times Literary Supplement, and edited The Times from 1992 to 2002.

He was the son of Max Stothard, an electrical engineer who worked at the Marconi Research Centre, Great Baddow He grew up on the nearby Rothmans Estate. and was educated at Brentwood School, Essex and Trinity College, Oxford, where he became editor of Oxford University student newspaper Cherwell, after which he joined the BBC and wrote for the New Statesman, New Society and Plays and Players. He joined The Sunday Times in 1978 and The Times in 1981 where he was chief leader writer, deputy editor and US editor, based in Washington. He was knighted for services to the newspaper industry in 2003. He published Thirty Days: An Inside Account of Tony Blair at War in 2004 which was based on observations inside Downing Street during the Iraq War.

During Stothard's editorship, The Times reached a circulation of more than 900,000 - the highest in its history. This was the result of the so-called 'price war' which started in 1993 when The Times reduced its cover price and started intense circulation battles against The Daily Telegraph and The Independent. Under the ownership of News International, led by Rupert Murdoch, The Times had identified the Telegraph rather than The Guardian as its main rival while The Independent was at first a serious challenger to The Times. One enduring result of the price war was a significant narrowing of the gap between The Times and Daily Telegraph and a widening of the gap with The Independent.