Stuart Kuttner, managing editor of the News of the World for 22 years Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA
Stuart Kuttner, the News of the World's managing editor for 22 years, resigned on Friday before the Guardian revelations. No reason was given for his departure, but News International said he would continue to work on "specialised projects", including its Sarah's Law campaign. Kuttner has played a leading role in the paper's drive to change the law so parents can be told when registered sex offenders move into their area.
A former deputy editor of the paper who was previously news editor at the London Evening Standard, it usually fell to Kuttner to defend the paper when it courted controversy.
His only comment following the arrest of former royal report Clive Goodman in 2006 was when he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme in February 2008 that only one News of the World journalist had been involved in illegal phone hacking: "It happened once at the News of the World. The reporter was fired; he went to prison. The editor resigned."
As managing editor, Kuttner was in charge of the paper's finances. The paper conceded that Mulcaire was on its payroll, receiving £100,000 a year, but claimed that was for carrying out unrelated, and legitimate, investigative work.
Kuttner's role as the public face of the News of the World became more important at the start of the decade when successive editors, Rebekah Wade and her replacement Andy Coulson, seemed wary of talking to the media.
When Wade's "Sarah's Law" campaign whipped up public hysteria in several towns and cities, prompting some Portsmouth residents to burn the homes of suspected paedophiles, it was Kuttner who faced the cameras.
That is a role he had become accustomed to. When the paper had some explaining to do, Kuttner was invariably asked to carry out that task. He visited Soham in 2002, following the disappearance of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, to defend the paper's decision to offer a reward of £150,000 in conjunction with the Sun for information that could lead to their safe return. He also appeared on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost, responding to criticism of the reward and saying the man leading the investigation into the girls' disappearance, detective-superintendent David Hankins, had welcomed it.
Kuttner had also been an influential presence behind the scenes. When Gordon Brown and Tony Blair gave their first joint newspaper interview for over 10 years to the paper in April 2005, Kuttner's byline was on the story, along with that of Ian Kirby, the paper's long-serving political editor. Following his departure, the News of the World's current editor Colin Myler paid tribute to Kuttner, saying: "His DNA is absolutely integrated into the newspaper which he has represented across the media with vigour." Kuttner and a colleague were also named "team of the year" at the British Press Awards in 2002 for their work on the Sarah's Law campaign. Clive Goodman walked away with a gong for best royal editor the same evening.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/08/news-of-the-world-stuart-kuttner-profile?CMP=twt_gu
