Cathy Newman
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Broadcaster and the first female main presenter of Channel 4 News
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One of the UK’s most hard-hitting and lauded broadcast journalists
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Her studio interviews are frequently news-making, and many have gone viral
Cathy Newman is one of Channel 4 News' main studio presenters, in fact she is the first female lead presenter, having joined Channel 4 News originally as political correspondent in January 2006.
Since arriving at Channel 4 News, Cathy's scoops have included the arrest of David Cameron's most senior aide, the disclosure that five illegal immigrants worked at the Home Office and Gordon Brown insisting on a knighthood for his ally, the Labour donor Sir Ronald Cohen.
Plus allegations of violent abuse against the British barrister John Smyth, sexual harassment allegations against the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Rennard, and an investigation into a British sex offender, Simon Harris, which saw him jailed for 17 years.
Cathy's interview with Peter Mandelson in 2009, in which she challenged him over his four-letter tirade to newspaper bosses, became a YouTube hit. She was also the only broadcast journalist to travel with Angelina Jolie and the foreign secretary William Hague to the Congo as part of a campaign against sexual violence.
Cathy’s studio interviews are frequently news-making, and many have gone viral - watched by millions online - including combative encounters with the Canadian academic Jordan Peterson and the former motor-racing tycoon Max Mosley. The latter was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award in 2019, and made the front cover of Private Eye.
Prior to joining Channel 4 Cathy spent over a decade working in Fleet Street. She worked as chief political correspondent for the Financial Times for three years and before that she covered politics and media for the FT. Cathy joined the FT from the Independent where she was media business correspondent.
In 2000, Cathy won the prestigious Laurence Stern Fellowship, spending four months following in the footsteps of Woodward and Bernstein at the Washington Post.
On television she has presented other Channel 4 programmes including Britain Decides: Everything But Brexit debate in the lead up to the 2019 General Election. She previously co-presented the Alternative Election Night with Jeremy Paxman. She regularly presents Channel 4's Dispatches programmes – recent programmes include The Prince and the Paedophile, focussing on Prince Andrew’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. She has also appeared several times on Have I Got News For You and Christmas Celebrity Genius.
Her first book - Bloody Brilliant Women: Pioneers, Revolutionaries & Geniuses Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention - about female pioneers in 20th century Britain, was published by HarperCollins in Autumn 2018.
Cathy was described by the Observer as a “brilliant writer”. Author Michael Morpurgo said: “This book is so important. No library, no school or university, should be without a copy.”
Her follow-up book, It Takes Two, telling the stories of the power of pairings to achieve great things, was published in Autumn 2020.
Cathy has frequently written about politics for the Daily Telegraph. She was a judge on the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2015 and the Red Magazine Women of the Year Award 2016. She is a patron of Kids, a charity for disabled children, and an ambassador for Young Minds.
In her spare time, Cathy is a keen amateur violinist, and plays in The Statutory Instruments quartet with members of parliament and Westminster staff.
Cathy Newman is an experienced and sought-after conference host and speaker. She has also chaired many events and hosted many awards ceremonies.
She is consistently praised for her professional, thorough and engaging approach, and is frequently invited back to host and chair events.
Thank you so much for working with us this week. You’re an absolute dream to work with – not just because you’re a true professional and delivered excellent content - but also because you’re just really cool and easy going! So thank you.
You made my job a lot easier and put the audience and speakers at ease too. It was seamless and we’ve never had a better event with such good feedback content-wise. And you played a huge role in this.
The whole Chamber Team and I would like to thank you for your excellent contribution on the night. Your insights and anecdotes along with your reflections on journalism and media went down superbly.
The feedback we have received since the event has once again been positive and complimentary. As you may have picked up, we bill this event as the ‘flagship’ event of its kind in the Highlands. I’m again delighted to reflect that once again we more than achieved our high expectations.
You were a truly excellent host. We were most impressed by your thorough knowledge of the self-employed sector, and by your engaging demeanour, which inspired robust discussion from panellists and the audience.
Very pleased with Cathy, she was a great host for the evening. She took the time to work through the script pre-event and tailored it to suit the audience. Comments made on the evening about Cathy were very positive, she made the audience laugh and those sat on her table said she was great.
Cathy was outstanding, she held the sessions together incredibly well and her questioning of speakers was perfect. She was a pleasure to work with and would recommend her to chair any event.
Cathy was wonderful. Cathy managed the event so professionally, simply amazing. She was the best host we had so far for our events. She is very approachable and easy to work with.
Even though we had one conversation over the phone prior to the event and she was only given the script few hours before, she managed it so well, cannot find any fault. We had so much positive feedback. Please pass on our gratitude and appreciation to her.
Cathy was superb; so easy to work with and nothing was too much trouble for her. I really felt she was invested in the event and was flexible and adaptable as things changed which invariably they do. She was very professional and approachable and everyone who came into contact with her thought she was super.
Great at communicating as well, so well prepared with a range of questions for the speakers if needed and dealt with questions from the audience extremely well too. She was, by far, the best chair I have ever worked with! The delegates thought so too with 98% rating her as good or better!
I really enjoyed your clever questioning of the speakers, keeping it fun but not letting them get away with dodging the question or giving politicians answers. An excellent female role model!
How to book Cathy Newman for your event
To book Cathy Newman, please submit an online enquiry to booking.agent@nmp.co.uk or contact one of our booking agents on +44 (0)20 3822 0003.
One of the UK’s leading and best-loved broadcasters
Former ITV Chief Political Correspondent & Economics Editor
Chief Correspondent for BBC News and award-winning journalist
Anchor of Britain's award-winning Channel 4 News since 1989
Broadcaster, former BBC China editor and gender equality campaigner
Multi-award-winning broadcaster, journalist and television presenter
