Lionel Barber (born 18 January 1955) is an English journalist. He was editor of the Financial Times (FT) from 2005 to 2020. Barber worked at The Scotsman and The Sunday Times before working at the FT from the mid-1980s. Barber was a well-regarded editor of the FT. He was credited with raising its journalistic standards, transforming it into a global brand, navigating its transition into the digital era, growing readership, and managing its takeover by Nikkei.

Early life and career

Barber was born on 18 January 1955 to a journalist father. He was educated at Dulwich College, an independent school for boys in Dulwich in South London, and at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, graduating in 1978 with an upper second joint honours degree in German and modern history. He worked for a company in Germany as an interpreter, before being offered a job on the Thomson regional training scheme. Barber began his career in journalism in 1978 as a reporter for The Scotsman. In 1981, after being named Young Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards, he became a business correspondent at The Sunday Times, having been interviewed by its editor Frank Giles. By 1982 he was the Enterprising Britain correspondent (a title used to denote the position that became known as industrial correspondent). The co-writer of several books, his works include a history of Reuters news agency (The Price of Truth, 1985) and the Westland affair (Not with Honour, 1986).

At the Financial Times

Barber joined the Financial Times in 1985. His positions at the paper included Washington correspondent and US editor (1986–1992), Brussels bureau chief (1992–1998), and news editor (1998–2000). He was formerly the editor of the FT Continental European edition (2000–2002), during which he briefed US President George W. Bush ahead of his first trip to Europe. In November 2005, he was appointed editor of the Financial Times, having believed the newspaper was in need of a different editor. In his capacity as editor, Barber interviewed figures including Barack Obama, Wen Jiabao, Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Putin, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Angela Merkel, David Cameron and Manmohan Singh. In July 2012, Barber was accused of intimidating and threatening a member of staff at the Financial Times. Steve Lodge, who worked as a personal finance writer at the newspaper, was brought before a disciplinary panel following an incident in which the Financial Times claimed demonstrated he "had a problem working for women". Barber was accused of "losing his temper and raising his voice" in a manner that breached the newspaper's procedures. In October 2018, he said it was "time for a revolution" at the newspaper after sharing a reader's letter that criticised it for a "lack of diversity" among its columnists. Barber stepped down from the role on 17 January 2020 after 14 years as editor, and was succeeded by Roula Khalaf. Barber's 14 year tenure made him the second longest-serving editor in the FT's history, after Sir Gordon Newton. In 2019, Barber received pay and pension benefits worth £1.92 million, according to accounts published at Companies House. This led to a halt in pay negotiations.

After the Financial Times

In 2020, Barber began presenting What Next?, an interview podcast for LBC. Barber published a memoir covering his editorship of the FT in 2020, entitled The Powerful and the Damned: Private Diaries in Turbulent Times. In 2021, Barber joined a consortium of 9 other investors, that included former BBC Director-General and The New York Times Company chief executive Mark Thompson, to purchase The New European newspaper for an undisclosed sum.

Awards and recognition

Barber has received a number of awards and distinctions for his journalistic work.

Personal life

Barber's wife, Victoria Greenwood, is a criminologist. Barber has a daughter and a son, born in Washington, D.C. in 1988 and 1990. , he lives in London. He is fluent in French and German.