Deborah Turness approaches her new gig with a measure of self-confidence. Her Linkedin account asserts she's "a senior executive media/business leader with unrivalled experience leading the worlds premium commercial news brands. The only news leader to have been President of a US network (NBC News), Editor of a UK national newsroom (ITV News), and at the helm of a global brand (Euronews)."
Born and brought up in Hertfordshire, she went to St Francis’s College in Letchworth until she was expelled for smuggling boys into a barn dance - some reports suggest kisses were exchanged, aged 13 - but she admits there had been a string of previous incidents. She believes that her transfer to Baldock comprehensive, the Knights Templar, toughened her up. Then she helped launched a Schools Page in the local newspaper, The Stevenage and Hitchin Gazette, and progressed to reviewing pop music, to get free tickets.
Her CV talks about the University of Surrey, based in Guildford, but she clearly also spent time in London, writing for the London Student magazine and planning a student radio station. Her degree was English and French combined, and a French tutor had connections to the school of journalism at Bordeaux. After a postgrad there, she secured an unpaid internship with the Paris office of ITN, tidying files for bureau chief Barbara Grey (in her kitchen).
Jon Snow came over to cover the 1988 elections, and, with a producer off sick, asked Deborah to do some research work. They got a lead story out of her interview with Jacques Chirac, but then Deborah failed to make the shortlist for the ITN training scheme. Nonetheless, Jon 'opened the door'; Deborah got freelance shifts, and 'I ended up managing the people who had been on the training scheme that year. Things work out!'
At ITN, Debbie met and married Damien Steward, a former roadie for The Clash. They lived together in Shepherds Bush; then along came John Toker, 22 years an ITN journalist, who had just moved to Head of News at the Home Office. They now have two children, Fleur and Belle. John moved up to Director of Communications for Security and Intelligence at the Cabinet Office, but followed Deborah to the US, becoming a house-husband in Bronxville. Their white clap-board villa was just 35 minutes by car from Rockefeller Plaza.
