Katie Hind
Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday
Whenever there is a big, breaking news story – not one massaged by PRs – you’ll find Katie Hind’s byline at the top. By dint of a ‘never give up’ attitude, cast-iron contacts and a sublime sense of what makes a story, Katie leads… and others follow. Typical was the bombshell admission to her from Phillip Schofield that he had been having an inappropriate relationship with a much younger colleague. Hind had been determined to nail the truth about Schofield amid a maelstrom of misinformation and obfuscation. Not least, the presenter’s repeated lies to her and threats of legal action from his team who insisted that the story was not true. He even raised an IPSO complaint against her. Finally, the façade could be maintained no longer and it was time for Schofield to tell the truth. Who else to confess to but the Queen of Showbiz reporting? Her front-page exclusive, with Schofield’s breath-taking mea culpa, was followed by all media. Hind has an unparalleled knack of breaking scoops that no rival Showbiz writers match - from universal talking points (such as footballer Erling Haaland’s pyjama-style clothes) to racism rows and the latest Strictly gossip. When Angela Rippon signed up as the oldest ever contestant on the hit weekend show, it was shrouded in secrecy. But with the ink barely dry on Rippon’s Strictly contract, Hind ferreted out the story via her eclectic (and much-envied) contacts book. Never one just to concentrate on celebrities, Hind has focused on big issues in the TV world. Following her agenda-setting analysis of ITV’s lack of on-screen diversity, Hind overcame a barrage of lies and aggression from PRs to break a series of stories highlighting how staff and production companies were being axed by Channel 4 – an iniquity at a time when the network’s chief executive took home a £1.2 million salary and indulged in a lavish trip to the Oscars in Hollywood. Hind also put Channel 4’s noble mission statement of ‘creating change through entertainment’ under scrutiny by revealing some of its programmes’ salacious content – for example allowing Paul Gascoigne to share lewd stories about meeting Margaret Thatcher. Above all, telling viewers the truth about what happens on the other side of the world of showbiz – and behind the carefully curated ‘magic TV screen’ that is so central to modern life – is what Katie Hind does week in, week out.