Richard Addis

Richard Addis (born 23 August 1956) is a British journalist and entrepreneur. He is a former editor of the Daily Express newspaper and a former novice Anglican monk.

Addis was educated at West Downs School, Rugby School and Downing College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA and an MA. Between attending Rugby and Downing he spent two years as a novice at the Anglican priory of the Community of the Glorious Ascension in Watchet, Somerset.

His started in journalism as deputy editor of Homes & Jobs magazine where he was rapidly promoted to editor and, to save money, wrote the entire magazine under various pseudonyms. When the title went bankrupt he got a job as a reporter on Marketing Week where he remained for two years. His career took off when he was hired as a reporter on Londoner's Diary of the London Evening Standard in 1985. He went on to become Editor of Londoner's Diary and Assistant Editor (Features).

In 1989 he was appointed Deputy Editor of The Sunday Telegraph. In 1991 he was appointed Executive Editor at the Daily Mail. In 1995, he was appointed editor of the Daily Express and a year later became editor-in-chief of the Daily and Sunday Express. He left the Express in 1999 to move to Canada as editor of the The Globe and Mail in Toronto, a post he held from July 1999-July 2002. In 2002 he returned to London as Assistant Editor in charge of design at the Financial Times. He was promoted to Editor of Weekend FT shortly afterwards while retaining his design duties, remaining there until 2006.

Overall he has taken his turn at editing seven ‘national’ titles (Evening Standard, Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Sunday Express, Globe and Mail and Financial Times) which is believed to be a record among living British journalists.

Richard Addis left newspapers in February 2006 to launch his own media consultancy, Shakeup Media, working with publishers in Africa, the Middle East and India. For five years he attempted to launch various media start-ups including the UK’s first hand-written newspaper (The Manual) and the UK’s first quality free daily newspaper (The Day) which received investment support from backers including Associated Newspapers before running into the credit crunch of 2008. He wrote an award-winning book about the ethics of the global economic system (Good Value, Penguin, 2009) with Stephen Green.

In January 2011 he finally launched The Day in a new incarnation as a daily online news title for “schools, colleges and inquiring minds”. Claiming to be the “world’s first current affairs teaching and learning website”, 18 months after launch The Day had subscribers in 21 countries and a daily reach of over half a million teenagers.

Addis lives in London with the British actress Helen Schlesinger with whom he has two children, Theo and Sebastian. He was previously married to the artist Noonie Minogue with whom he has three children, the author Ferdie Addis, Beatrice and Katharine.