Gay Alcorn

Gay Alcorn is an Australian journalist and newspaper editor. She was appointed editor of The Age in September 2020 and stepped down in December 2022. Her sister, Margo Kingston, is also a journalist.[1]

Career

Alcorn studied arts and law at the University of Queensland. She began her career in journalism as a cadet with the Courier-Mail[2] before moving to Melbourne.[2]

In Melbourne, Alcorn joined The Sunday Age newspaper before it launched in 1989[3] and worked in the newsroom across The Age for 20 years.[4] From 1999 to 2002, she was based in Washington, D.C. as a foreign correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald where she covered the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential election[5] and the September 11 attacks.[6]

During her time at The Age and SMH Alcorn won three Walkley Awards for news and feature writing. She served as deputy editor of The Age from 2006 to 2008 and then as editor of The Sunday Age until 2012.[7] She left the editorial post to return to a writing role[8] and in 2013 launched and edited The Conversation’s Election FactCheck for the Australian federal election.[9]

In 2014 Alcorn joined Guardian Australia as their Melbourne editor,[2] and opened their Melbourne offices.[3]

In September 2020, it was announced that Alcorn would succeed Alex Lavelle as editor of The Age with effect from 28 September. She is the first woman in the newspaper's 165-year history to hold the position.[4] She decided to step down from her role as editor of The Age in December 2022 to take care of her unwell husband.[10]

Awards and honours
  • Walkley Award for Best Coverage of a Current Story (Print) 1996
  • Walkley Award for Newspaper Feature Writing (Print) 1999
  • Walkley Award for Newspaper Feature Writing (Print) (with Malcolm Schmidtke & Liz Minchin) 2004[11]
  • Keith Dunstan Quill Award for Commentary 2017[12]

References
  1. "Australia's many media dynasties". Crikey. 21 March 2005. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
  2. "Gay Alcorn, Melbourne editor of The Guardian Australia". The Standard. 13 October 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
  3. Guardian Staff (18 August 2016). "The Guardian presents screenings of Snowden film and Q&A discussions with Guardian reporters". the Guardian. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  4. Samios, Zoe (11 September 2020). "Gay Alcorn named new editor of The Age". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
  5. Alcorn, Gay (9 December 2020). "From the Archives, 2000: America just 90 minutes from destiny". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  6. Mediaweek (11 September 2020). "The Age announces Gay Alcorn as the new editor for Melbourne masthead". Mediaweek. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  7. Bailey, Samantha (11 September 2020). "Gay Alcorn to edit The Age". The Australian. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
  8. Leys, Nick (22 August 2012). "Fairfax announces key appointments". Retrieved 11 September 2020.
  9. "Guardian Australia appoints Melbourne Editor". www.inpublishing.co.uk. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  10. Samios, Zoe (30 November 2022). "Gay Alcorn to step down as editor of The Age". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  11. "Walkley Winners Archive". The Walkley Foundation. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  12. "2017 Quills: The Keith Dunstan Quill for Commentary". Melbourne Press Club. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
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