Paul Colgan

PAUL’S first journalism was an audio documentary on a trip from Riyadh to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast. The audio was punctuated by travelling companions yelling at him to shut up and have fun, which he should have done, because he was 10.

His first paid assignments were music reviews for The Drogheda Independent, his local newspaper in Ireland. After training there as reporter and sub-editor and freelancing for Irish music mag Hot Press, Paul joined the Dublin bureau of The Sunday Times as a news reporter in 1999, where he enjoyed a few short weeks of smoking at his desk before it was banned, and over the following years covered transport, health, and legal affairs for the paper.

Paul arrived in Sydney in 2003 and joined news.com.au, working as a reporter and later chief of staff before being appointed Deputy Editor, leading coverage of major stories and developing journalism innovations. He was appointed Managing Editor of The Punch in January 2009.