Deborah Turness Net Worth, Income, Salary, Earnings, Biography

The former Editor of ITV News, Deborah Mary Turness (born 1967) is a British journalist who has served as President of NBC News since August 2013. She was the first female editor of network news in the United Kingdom when she served as Editor of ITV News from 2004 to 2013. Turness was born in the English county of Hertfordshire and had his education at St Francis’ College and the Knights Templar School in Baldock, Hertfordshire. Later, Turness attended the University of Surrey, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in French and English. She then went on to study journalism at the University of Bordeaux in France, where she received a master’s degree. She began working for ITN as a freelance producer in the Paris Bureau shortly after graduating from university in 1988, and later rose to the position of ‘North of England’ producer in 1991. In 1993, she began working as a producer for the International Television Network Bureau in Washington. In 1991, she participated in the Paris to Peking Offroad 4×4 Car Rally, which took place in China. Turness joined Five News as Deputy Editor in 2000, and was later elevated to Editor the following year. 

During her tenure at Five News, she was credited for removing desks from the studio and so inventing the idea of ‘perching presenters.’ During 2002, she served as a Producer on Channel 4’s RI:SE before leaving after six months to return to ITV News as Deputy Editor, where she has remained since. In 2004, she was appointed Editor of ITV News, making her the first woman to hold the position of editor of a major television network. Turness was honoured with the ‘The News and Factual Award,’ which was given by Women in Television and Film in 2008. Amnesty International UK Media Awards for the television news storey “Too Young to Die – Children of the Frontline” in 2008, for which she shared the award with another journalist, was also won by her in 2008. In 2010, she served as the chair of the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, which she founded. Turness presided over a number of scoops and global exclusives during his tenure as Editor of ITN, including the arrest of the London bomber and the release of the inquiry report into the killing of Brazilian Charles De Menezes, among others. In May 2011, she was the sole journalist invited to the State Banquet for Barack Obama at Buckingham Palace, which she attended as a guest of the President. In 2011, she was named one of London’s 1000 most important individuals by the Financial Times. Turness and her first husband, Damien Steward, a television journalist, resided in Shepherds Bush, London, until they divorced. On the 26th of August, 2011, she tied the knot with John Toker, the Cabinet Office’s Director of Communications for Security and Intelligence, who was once a producer for the Independent Television Network. Fleur, their daughter, was born to them in 2009.

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