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Lionel Barber Media Society Honouree 2017:
A Tribute by Geraldine Sharpe-Newton - Former Media Society  President

Lionel Barber always appeared to have stepped outside the traditional descriptions of a newspaper editor.  His calm, energetic enthusiasm, generated a very different style of leadership. A slightly remote demeanour was the camouflage for his exhaustive sense of being a leaderly editor on the bridge of a great newspaper.  

However, respect for Lionel reaches far beyond his newsroom. He was comfortable with languages, governments, styles and attitudes clear across Europe and North America.

Still further, in a time of great change in the business of newspaper leadership, Barber has been especially respected for having nursed a seamless transformation of editors and reporters to the FT’s print and on-line ambitions. 
Someone recently said that Lionel Barber has been “the very model of a modern Major-General, Newspaper Editor.”  

The Media Society is proud to echo that description of the man. In 2017 The Media Society paid tribute to Lionel for his outstanding contribution to journalism.

Geraldine Sharpe-Newton Jan 2020