Ian Mayes

Ian Mayes is a British journalist and editor. He was the first "readers' editor" – a title he invented for the newspaper ombudsman role<ref name=Ombuds>"Democracy, media and (cyber) ombudsmen", Organization of News Ombudsmen (ONO), 21 September 2010.</ref> — of The Guardian, from November 1997 to March 2007,<ref name=OpenBook6Nov06>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Open Door 2-4-07">Template:Cite news</ref> and was president of the international Organization of News Ombudsmen from May 2005 to May 2007,<ref name=OpenBook6Nov06 /><ref name="ONO's Members">ONO's Members Template:Webarchive Organization of News Ombudsmen</ref> serving as a board member from May 2002<ref name="Word Abroad">Template:Cite news</ref> after joining in April 2001.<ref name=OpenDoor>Template:Cite news</ref> Mayes is the author of books including Witness in a Time of Turmoil: Inside the Guardian's Global Revolution, Volume 1, 1986–1995, published in May 2025.

Background

Ian Mayes' career as a journalist spans six decades and includes many years as features editor of the Northampton Chronicle and Echo,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> before he joined BBC Radio News in Broadcasting House (1979–87), then became assistant features editor of the short-lived London Daily News.<ref name=Parliament>"Annex: A statement by Ian Mayes, Readers' Editor", Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport, www.parliament.co.uk.</ref>

Mayes began writing for The Guardian as a freelance in 1962, his first piece being a story on the features page (then edited by Brian Redhead) about the return of Laurie Lee to the village of Slad in Gloucestershire, where Cider with Rosie was set.<ref name=GuardianMembers>Chris Elliott, Template:"'I wanted to take you inside the paper' – a new history of the Guardian", The Guardian (Members area), 10 April 2017.</ref> It was towards the end of 1988<ref name=Parliament /> that Mayes joined the staff of the newspaper; his first ten years included launching The Guardian Weekend magazine and the daily G2 section with former editor Alan Rusbridger, and time served as deputy features editor, arts editor and obituaries editor.

From November 1997 to March 2007, Mayes was The GuardianTemplate:'s Readers' Editor – a title he invented for the newspaper ombudsman role<ref name="Ombuds"/> to suggest a bridge between readers and journalists<ref name=accountable>Template:Cite news</ref> — the first such appointment of a resident independent ombudsman in the UK.<ref name=OpenBook6Nov06 /><ref name="Open Door 2-4-07" /> Other British newspapers, including The Observer, The Independent on Sunday and the Daily Mirror, quickly followed suit in appointing readers' editors, although Mayes was the only one to do the job full-time.<ref>Ian Mayes, "Trust me — I’m an ombudsman"Template:Dead link, British Journalism Review, Archive.</ref> The Guardian system was also closely replicated on newspapers such as Politiken in Denmark and The Hindu in India.<ref name=accountable />

Through an influential weekly column called "Open Door",<ref>David Nolan, "Public editors, 'media governance' and journalistic practice", School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne, p. 7.</ref> Mayes dealt with corrections and clarifications (14,000 in his decade in the post),<ref>"Guardian readers' editor Ian Mayes talks to PG", Press Gazette, 5 January 2007.</ref> as well as conducting a debate on the ethics of journalism.<ref>"Newspapers and accountability", Department of Journalism Studies, The University of Sheffield, 30 November 2006.</ref><ref name=accountable /> Selections from the columns were collected in four books: Corrections and Clarifications (2000), Corrections and Clarifications 2002 (2002), Only Correct: The Best of Corrections and Clarifications (2005) and Journalism Right and Wrong: Ethical and Other Issues Raised by Readers in the Guardian's Open Door Column. A translated selection of the columns was produced by Moscow State University under the title Rabota nad oshibkami (Work on mistakes).<ref name=accountable />

He was president of the international Organization of News Ombudsmen (ONO) from May 2005 to May 2007,<ref name=OpenBook6Nov06 /><ref name="ONO's Members"/> serving as a board member from May 2002,<ref name="Word Abroad" /> after joining in April 2001.<ref name=OpenDoor /> He has lectured and taken part in seminars on the function of ombudsmen in the media nationally and internationally (including in the US, Russia, Scandinavia, and Slovenia),<ref name=Parliament /> inspiring newspapers in other parts of the world to create their own readers' editors; typically, The Hindu has referenced "the exemplary practice and experience of The Guardian, whose pioneering RE, Ian Mayes, had set the bar high."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He is credited with the discovery of the "apostrofly", "an insect which lands at random on the printed page depositing an apostrophe wherever it alights".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His last column as Readers' Editor appeared on 2 April 2007,<ref name="Open Door 2-4-07" /> since when he has been an associate editor of The Guardian.<ref>Ian Mayes page at The Guardian.</ref>

He has been honoured by the creation of "The Ian Mayes Award for Writing Wrongs" in 2008.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Craig Silverman, Crunks 2008: The Year in Media Errors and Corrections, RegretTheError.com</ref>

Mayes subsequently began researching and writing the third modern volume of the official history of The Guardian (following earlier books by David Ayerst and Geoffrey Taylor),<ref name="Open Door 2-4-07" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Chris Elliott, "The paper's relationship with its readers is unlike any other'", Press Reader, 8 April 2017.</ref> beginning in 1986, his aim being to "humanise the decisions that have shaped the Guardian and its editorial line".<ref name=GuardianMembers /> Drawing on more than 100 interviews, Witness in a Time of Turmoil: Inside the Guardian's Global Revolution, Volume 1, 1986–1995 was published in ay 2025.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Hazlitt Society

Mayes was instrumental in the project to restore William Hazlitt's grave,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> after visiting the original neglected gravestone in St Anne's Churchyard early in 2001.<ref>Ian Mayes, "Revival time", The Guardian, 5 May 2001, via Hazlitt Society.</ref><ref>Ian Mayes, "Hazlitt day", The Guardian, 30 December 2002, via Hazlitt Society.</ref> The restored grave was unveiled by Michael Foot on the 225th anniversary of Hazlitt's birth, 10 April 2003.<ref>John Ezard, "William Hazlitt's near-derelict grave restored", The Guardian, 11 April 2003; also at "Radical Solution: William Hazlitt's near derelict grave restored", Hazlitt Society.</ref><ref>"About the Hazlitt Society".</ref> Mayes was closely involved with the subsequent formation of the Hazlitt Society,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> of which he was inaugural Chairman.<ref>Uttara Natarajan, "Editor's Note", The Hazlitt Review, Vol. 10, 2017.</ref>

Works

Bibliography

• Samuel De Wilde, c.1751-1832: Theatre in Georgian and Regency London : George James De Wilde, 1804-1871, The life and times of Victorian Northampton: An exhibition at Northampton Central Art Gallery, 4 September to 2 October, 1971 (Northampton Museums and Art Gallery, 1971).
• Corrections and Clarifications (Fourth Estate, 2000), Template:ISBN, and (Guardian Books, 2000), Template:ISBN
• Corrections and Clarifications 2002 (Atlantic Books, 2002), Template:ISBN
• Only Correct: The Best of Corrections and Clarifications (Guardian Books, 2005), Template:ISBN
• Journalism Right and Wrong: Ethical and Other Issues Raised by Readers in the Guardian's Open Door Column (Guardian Books, February 2007), Template:ISBN
• Witness in a Time of Turmoil: Inside the Guardian's Global Revolution, Volume 1, 1986–1995 (Guardian Books, 2025), Template:ISBN

Selected articles

• "John Bell, The British Theatre and Samuel De Wilde", Apollo, 113 (1981), pp. 99–103.
• "Inside the cocoon" (review of Marcel Proust: Selected Letters, vol 2, 1904-1909, edited by Philip Kolb), The Guardian, 18 January 1990.
• "On an unsound footing: The readers' editor on... the role of syntax in dancing", The Guardian, 8 January 1999.
• "Black and white cases", The Guardian, 6 March 1999.
• "Abuse of trust", The Guardian, 10 June 2000.
• "Funny ha ha", The Guardian, 30 December 2000.
• "Snap decision", The Guardian, 20 January 2001.
• "Snap judgment", The Guardian, 12 January 2002.
• "Words' worth", The Guardian, 16 February 2002.
• "Matters of approximate fact", The Guardian, 21 October 2002.
• "Unspeakable but readable", The Guardian, 28 August 2004.
• Template:"'Why should newspapers not be accountable?Template:'", Open Door, The Guardian, 22 October 2017.

External links

• Ian Mayes page at The Guardian
• Readers' Editor of The Guardian includes his Open Door column archives
• "Corrections and Clarifications" column in The Guardian
• Ian Mayes, "Trust me, I'm an ombudsman", The British Journalism Review, Vol. 14, No. 2, 2004, pp. 65–70.
• Organisation of News Ombudsmen official site
• Ian Mayes, "The return of the apostrofly" (a brief history of the apostrofly), The Guardian, 4 December 2004
• Ian Mayes, "Laughter in a house of correction" in The Guardian, 6 August 2005
• "Writing wrongs: Guardian readers' editor Ian Mayes", Press Gazette, 12 January 2007.
• "Guardian readers' editor Ian Mayes talks to PG", Press Gazette, 5 January 2007.