My friend David Simpson, who has died aged 65 following a heart attack, was a much-respected colleague at the Guardian during the 1980s and a key figure in the paper’s vibrant coverage of financial affairs, which frequently set the pace for others to follow.
He was especially adept at making headlines with breaking news stories and we worked closely together handling major scandals such as the Westland affair and the controversies surrounding the Thatcher government’s programme of privatisation. He was the ideal collaborator, utterly trustworthy and enormously generous.
As the Guardian’s City and then industrial correspondent, he was among the most prominent financial journalists of the 80s and was instrumental in shifting important business stories from their traditional niche at the back of the paper on to the front. He brought intelligence and insight into making complex financial issues more accessible to a general readership.
David was born in Dundee to David, a GPO technician, and Elizabeth. Educated at Dundee’s Morgan Academy, he went to the University of Aberdeen and joined the Guardian in the early 80s after a spell with the Sunday Express. He later became the industrial editor and business editor at the Observer, his last newspaper posting. He often cut an old-fashioned figure in a changing newspaper era, with his tie askew and a drink and cigarette always close to hand. He was unpretentious and never effusive, but invariably worth listening to when he spoke in his soft Scots burr.
After his career in newspapers, David made a successful transition into the financial public relations industry. From 1988 to 1995 he was a senior executive at the City PR firm Dewe Rogerson, where he advised leading companies and financial institutions with the same clarity he had shown in the newsroom. He was then appointed chief executive at Ludgate Communications in 1995 and later joined Square Mile Communications as a director.
He retired in 2004 and moved back to Scotland to be near his family. Although his prodigious commitment to work often left little time for much else, David never lost his passion for fishing, horse racing and rugby.
He is survived by his second wife, Tink, from whom he was separated. His first marriage, to Penelope (nee Burton), ended in divorce.
