John Blake (journalist)

John Blake (born 6 November 1948) is a British journalist and publisher. He lives beside the River Thames near London with his wife Diane.

Blake first came to prominence in the early 1970s as a pop columnist for the Evening News in London. His work developed into a column titled "Ad Lib", an early example of a celebrity gossip column and lifestyle guide which survived the merger of The Evening News with the Evening Standard.

Head-hunted by The Sun, the UK's leading tabloid daily, Blake launched 'Bizarre', a page that took celebrity gossip to a new level and established much of today's UK media obsession with the topic, helping to found what is now referred to as the cult of celebrity;

A tug-of-war ensued over Blake between The Sun owner Rupert Murdoch and Daily Mirror owner Robert Maxwell. Maxwell won the bidding war and Blake launched a pop column called White Hot Club. He went on to become editor of Maxwell's Sunday People, an appointment that lasted until Maxwell suddenly decided he wished to appoint Britain's first female national newspaper editor. Blake found himself President of the Mirror Group in the USA in the run-up to Maxwell's anticipated purchase of the National Enquirer, a job which imploded when Maxwell failed to complete the deal. He resolved to enjoy his hobby of sailing, with occasional contributions as a TV writer in the Daily Mail. In 1976 he wrote a book...
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