Dan Wootton

Daniel John William Wootton (born 2 March 1983) is a New Zealand-born journalist and broadcaster. He is executive editor of The Sun newspaper and host of talkRADIO's drivetime show. In 2007, he joined the News of the World. In 2013, he joined The Sun on Sunday and became editor of the Bizarre column the following year. In February 2016, he became associate editor of The Sun and in March 2018 was promoted to executive editor.[1]

Dan Wootton
Born
Daniel John William Wootton

2 March 1983 (1983-03-02) (age 37)
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
OccupationJournalist and broadcaster
TelevisionDaybreak (2011–2012)
Lorraine (2011–2019)
Big Brother's Bit on the Side (2015–2018)

Wootton has made appearances as a show business presenter on the ITV Breakfast shows Lorraine and Daybreak. Since 2015 he has also been a regular contributor and panellist on Big Brother's Bit on the Side.

Biography

Wootton grew up in Lower Hutt, a city in the Wellington region of New Zealand and attended Naenae College and Victoria University of Wellington, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in media studies and political science.[2][3][4]

Career

He started his career as a journalist in his native New Zealand, writing an entertainment column for the Wellington-based broadsheet newspaper The Dominion Post and was also a reporter for the daily television show Good Morning.[5] He came to the United Kingdom when he was 21, and after a spell working for trade magazines, he found a job with Broadcast magazine.[6]

Wootton joined the News of the World TV team in February 2007,[7] becoming TV editor in November 2007,[8] and show-business editor in November 2008 until its closure in July 2011,[9][10] when he then became a columnist and feature writer for the Daily Mail and editor-at-large for Now magazine.[11][12] In 2013, Wootton joined The Sun newspaper launching a new column on Sundays.[13] He was made editor of the newspaper's Bizarre column in 2014,[14] and promoted to associate editor (showbiz and TV) in 2016.[15] He was named 'Showbiz reporter of the year' at the 2010, 2013 and 2018 British Press Awards.[16][17]

Wootton also made appearances as a showbiz reporter on ITV's morning show Lorraine between 2011 and 2019, and has been a guest on BBC Radio 5 Live.[18]

In 2015, Wooton and The Sun received widespread criticism for an article he penned for the tabloid titled "Hollywood HIV Panic". Writing in The Independent, Tom Hayes referred to the piece as an "insidious piece of stigma-reinforcing" journalism, HIV policy advisor Lisa Power, who was quoted in the article, called it "vile" and noted her "disappointment" that Wooton had "lent his name to such a shameful piece".[19] Further criticism came from the Terrence Higgins Trust who called it "irresponsible",[20] the British Medical Journal,[21] Owen Jones[22] and Lead HIV Consultant, Dr Steve Taylor.[23]

He's hosted a weekly talkRADIO show called "Dan's Dilemmas" since March 2018 and in February 2020 he took over as host of the station's drivetime show, replacing Eamonn Holmes.[24][25][26]

In July 2020, libel proceedings, brought by Johnny Depp against Wootton and News Group Newspapers, began in the High Court of Justice in the case of Depp v News Group Newspapers Ltd. The action relates to an article published in 2018 in The Sun describing Depp as a "wife beater".[27][28]

Personal life

In 2013, he announced on his Twitter account that he is gay.[29]

gollark: Some kind of complex machine for screen removal is not.
gollark: praise the P I N E
gollark: I'd like ones which are actually repairable with reasonable equipment.
gollark: Yes it is.
gollark: I... don't think that actually has always been the case, or at least you didn't really have to do ridiculous stuff like heat up phones to loosen adhesives to replace any part whatsoever before.

References
  1. Tobitt, Charlotte. "The Sun promotes former head of showbiz Dan Wootton to executive editor". pressgazette.co.uk. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  2. Manson, Bess (29 January 2011). "Dan Wootton". New Zealand Listener. Retrieved 22 March 2016. Raised in Avalon in Lower Hutt and educated at Naenae College and Victoria University...
  3. "Inspiring Kiwi". Television New Zealand. Retrieved 22 March 2016. Armed with a media studies and political science degree from Victoria University in Wellington...
  4. "Roll of graduates". Victoria University of Wellington. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  5. Gallagher, Rachael (7 November 2008). "Dan Wootton starts as NoW showbiz columnist". Press Gazette. Retrieved 22 March 2016. New Zealand born Wootton wrote a daily entertainment column for Wellington-based national newspaper The Dominion Post and was a reporter for TV show Good Morning, before leaving New Zealand to move to London
  6. Everett, Charlotte (11 August 2013). "How NZer Dan Wootton became a UK household name". NZNEWSUK. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  7. Brook, Stephen (30 January 2007). "Hamilton jumps showbiz ship". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 March 2016. And Broadcast reporter Dan Wootton is to join Rachel Richardson's TV team at the News of the World.
  8. Brook, Stephen (23 November 2007). "Dickinson becomes NoW US editor". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 March 2016. The News of the World also said today it had promoted Dan Wootton, who joined the News of the World in February, to be TV editor.
  9. Gallagher, Rachael (7 November 2008). "Dan Wootton starts as NoW showbiz columnist". Press Gazette. Retrieved 22 March 2016. Wootton, at 25, has taken over as showbiz editor and the paper claims he is the youngest showbiz columnist in the UK
  10. "NoW showbiz editor Dan Wootton: Nobody expected this". BBC News. 7 July 2011. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  11. Sweney, Mark (31 October 2011). "Dan Wootton to join Daily Mail". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  12. Burrell, Ian (19 December 2011). "News of the World outcasts still appear to have their friends in prime places". The Independent. Retrieved 22 March 2016. [Dan Wootton] has since been snapped up by the Daily Mail, while he also writes a column for the showbiz magazine Now and appears as a pundit on the ITV show Lorraine.
  13. Halliday, Josh (5 July 2013). "Dan Wootton to join the Sun on Sunday". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  14. Conlan, Tara (3 July 2014). "Sun appoints showbiz columnist Dan Wootton to edit revamped Bizarre". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  15. Greenslade, Roy. "Gordon Smart leaves Scotland to be the Sun's deputy editor". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 March 2016. Dan Wootton has been promoted to associate editor (showbiz and TV) and will be responsible for running the Bizarre column plus a new section called Bizarre TV.
  16. "British Press Awards 2010: Full list of winners". Press Gazette. 24 March 2010. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  17. "The Guardian crowned newspaper of the year at Press Awards – full list of winners". Press Gazette. 2 April 2014. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  18. Sweney, Mark (31 October 2011). "Dan Wootton to join Daily Mail". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 March 2016. Wootton held discussions with ITV which resulted in his role as showbusiness reporter for the Lorraine Kelly show becoming formalised [...] Wootton also ... is a regular contributor to Richard Bacon and Victoria Derbyshire's shows on BBC Radio 5 Live
  19. "Reporting on HIV like it's the 1980s will only help the virus spread". The Independent. 11 November 2015.
  20. "The Sun claims Hollywood is 'panicking' about an actor having HIV". The Independent. 11 November 2015.
  21. Kirkham, Deborah (13 November 2015). "Sun shows how not to report a case of HIV". BMJ. doi:10.1136/bmj.h6147.
  22. Jones, Owen (11 November 2015). "We can't go back to the deadly HIV stigma of the 1980s | Owen Jones". The Guardian.
  23. "HIV Testing Saves Lives - Bad Journalism Kills | HuffPost UK Life". webcache.googleusercontent.com.
  24. Forster, Lucy (19 March 2018). "Showbiz reporter Dan Wootton joins talkRADIO". Digital Radio UK.
  25. Tobitt, Charlotte (27 January 2020). "Sun's Dan Wootton takes over Talkradio drivetime slot from Eamonn Holmes". Press Gazette. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  26. "Eamonn Holmes replaced by Dan Wootton on talkRADIO". RadioToday. 24 January 2020.
  27. "Johnny Depp's libel case against The Sun begins". BBC News. 7 July 2020.
  28. "Johnny Depp's reputation on line as libel trial set to begin". The Guardian. 7 July 2020.
  29. Wootton, Dan [@danwootton] (4 December 2013). "I'm gay and I believe in equality" (Tweet). Retrieved 4 December 2013 – via Twitter.
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