View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
June 8, 2006updated 22 Nov 2022 7:41pm

Polly Hepburn

By Press Gazette

Former deputy news editor, News of the World

Polly Hepburn, who has died at the tragically young age of 57, was a star of the generation of bright young journalists to come out of the Northeast in the 1970s.

A lively, blonde Lancashire girl with bright blue eyes, she met her husband Ian in Newcastle, where she worked on the South Shields Gazette.

They moved to Birmingham where she joined the Post and soon became chief crime reporter, firmly debunking the notion still prevalent at the time that women didn’t handle hard news.

She made that doubly clear with her characteristically professional coverage of the IRA pub bombings which devastated the city centre in 1974, and the subsequent trial.

It did not take her long to move to Fleet Street and the News of the World, where she blossomed, getting the inside stories, with her own lively brand of skill, charm and humour, of the late ’70s and early ’80s.

It was Polly who told the terrible

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

innocent Irish girl whose terrorist lover put her and their unborn baby with a bomb on an El Al flight from Heathrow.

When a soldier foiled an assassination attempt on the Queen at the Trooping the Colour, it was Polly who cut through the confusion and tracked him down for an exclusive page-one article.

As deputy news editor, she handled calmly and firmly some of the major news stories of her time: the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise, the NoW coverage of which was warmly praised by other media.

Polly went on to work for Sunday Magazine, Today, the Sunday Mirror, and to run her own news agency, HM Press.

She was a warm, caring friend, a helpful and loyal colleague and always good company, whatever the circumstances.

She was also a wonderful wife to Ian and mother to Andrew, Laura and Robbie.

Robert Warren

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network