User:Cobornkid/John Duncan (journalist)

John Duncan (born 5 April 1965 in London, England) is an author, journalist and newspaper consultant who lives in Tarpon Springs, Florida.

Cuba
John is the author of the book In The Red Corner, a history of boxing in Cuba which also details the author's attempt to set up a world heavyweight title fight between Felix Savon and Mike Tyson in 1997.

When Saturday Comes
Duncan was the publisher of the football fanzine When Saturday Comes from 1988 to 1992, and oversaw the development of the publication from a photocopied fanzine to the UK's leading monthly football magazine. In a publicity stunt John and City Limits journalist Steve Pinder had their beards shaved off live on the BBC and ITV lunchtime news of March 3 1989 prior to a WSC-organized trip to Tirana for the Albania v England_football_team] England World Cup qualifier of March 8 1989. Both John and the editor Andy Lyons (journalist) were supporters of Everton.

The Observer
In 1992, John moved on to work for the Guardian Media Group and became the managing editor of the Observer in 1999. The circulation of the newspaper at the time was slipping below 400,000 but together with then editor Roger Alton and current editor John Mulholland, Duncan launched Observer Sport Monthly, Observer Food Monthly and Observer Music Monthly. He also led the launch of the first Sunday newspaper blog in 2005. When he left the title in January 2006 following the switch to a Berliner format, the Observer was selling 513,835 copies.

Radio
John is a regular pundit on BBC Radio 5 Live. He has appeared most regularly on the Sports Panel in the Simon Mayo programme where he has become the butt of jokes for his habitual optimism about the chances of English sports teams. He has guest-presented the Adrian Chiles show on BBC Radio 5 Live. He was a boxing commentator for the Cuban radio station Radio Rebelde during the 1997 national boxing championships.

Publications

 * In the Red Corner, Random House 1998, ISBN 0224051474
 * Saturday's Boys: The Football Experience, edited by Harry Lansdown and Alex Spillius, 1990, HarperCollinsWillow, ISBN 0002183846