Eleanor Mills (journalist)

Eleanor Mills (born 1970) is a British journalist, editor, author, speaker and media entrepreneur. She spent 23 years at Times Newspapers and served as the Editorial Director of The Sunday Times and Editor of The Sunday Times Magazine.[1] After leaving in March 2020, she founded Noon.org.uk, an online media platform and community for women in midlife and coined the term 'Queenager' to describe women aged 45 to 70. In 2024 she published Much More to Come, a Times bestseller about midlife, with HarperCollins. She served as Chair of Women in Journalism from 2014 to 2021.[2]

Early life

Born and raised in Camden, north London,[3] Mills is the daughter of the corporate solicitor David Mills from his first marriage. She was educated at St Paul's Girls' and Westminster schools.[4] Mills read English at Brasenose College, Oxford, matriculating in 1989 and graduating in 1992.[5]

Career

After graduating from Oxford, Mills began her career at Tank World magazine, where her boss was British politician and Mayor or Manchester Andy Burnham. She later trained as a journalist at The Observer.[4][6]

Mills moved to The Daily Telegraph at 26, becoming the paper’s youngest ever Features Editor. She joined The Sunday Times in 1998, where she worked as an Editor, feature writer, columnist, and interviewer over the following two decades. Her interviews included figures such as Mikhail Gorbachev, David Cameron, Theresa May, and Sheryl Sandberg.[6][7]

Mills joined The Sunday Times in 1998.[8] She was appointed Editorial Director of The Sunday Times in June 2012. In August 2008 she became editor of the Saturday edition of The Times, replacing George Brock.[9]

Mills was appointed Editor of The Sunday Times Magazine in September 2015, succeeding Sarah Baxter.[10] During her tenure she won Supplement of the Year at the Society of Editors Press Awards. She left both her role as Magazine editor and her position as Editorial Director in March 2020.[2]

Women in Journalism

Mills co-edited (with Kira Cochrane) Cupcakes and Kalashnikovs: 100 Years of the Best Journalism by Women,[11] published as Journalistas: 100 Years of the Best Writing and Reporting by Women Journalists in the United States.[12] Mills succeeded Jane Martinson as Chair of Women in Journalism, a UK campaigning group, at the end of 2013, taking up the role in 2014. During her seven-year chairship she championed diversity in newsrooms and launched a mentoring scheme that benefited more than 500 young women working in journalism.[13] She left this role in 2021,[14] and was succeeded by Daily Mirror editor Alison Phillips.[15]

In late March 2021, Mills resigned from the board of the Society of Editors in response to the organisation's handling of a statement by its then executive director, who had claimed the British media was not racist. Mills was among those who publicly disputed the statement when it was first issued earlier that month.[16][17]

Noon

On 8 March 2021, International Women's Day, Mills launched Noon, an online media platform and community for middle-aged women.[18] In a blog post for the Society of Editors, she wrote that older women are "very much the demographic the mainstream media forgot; one of the last bastions for diversity".[19]

Through Noon, Mills conducted research in partnership with major organisations including HSBC, for a project titled Fearless and Thriving examining midlife female entrepreneurs, and Accenture, for a report titled The Rise of the Queenager examining the economic power of women over 45. The Noon campaign #seeyourselfdifferently, run in partnership with Vision Express, won Digital Campaign of the Year.[20][21]

In 2025 Noon published research into midlife divorce called Beyond the Break with law firm Mishcon de Reya and private bank Jules Verne [22]

Bibliography

  • Mills, Eleanor; Cochrane, Kira, eds. (2005). Cupcakes and Kalashnikovs: 100 Years of the Best Journalism by Women. London: Constable. ISBN 978-1845291655. (US edition: Mills, Eleanor; Cochrane, Kira, eds. (2005). Journalistas: 100 Years of the Best Writing and Reporting by Women Journalists. New York: Carroll & Graf. ISBN 978-0786716678.
  • Mills, Eleanor; Cochrane, Kira, eds. (2005). Journalistas: 100 Years of the Best Writing and Reporting by Women Journalists. New York: Carroll & Graf. ISBN 978-0786716678.
  • Mills, Eleanor (2024). Much More to Come: Lessons on the Mayhem and Magnificence of Midlife. London: HarperCollins (HQ). ISBN 9780008642563.

References

  1. ↑ "Eleanor Mills: Editorial Director, The Sunday Times". News UK. Archived from the original on 8 April 2016. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  2. 1 2 Mayhew, Freddy (5 March 2020). "Eleanor Mills leaves Sunday Times month after paper hires new editor". Press Gazette. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  3. ↑ "How We Did It". The Sunday Times. 8 March 2015. Retrieved 21 August 2020. (subscription required)
  4. 1 2 Biography in Cupcakes and Kalashnikovs: 100 Years of the Best Journalism by Women
  5. ↑ "Brazen Futures" (PDF). Brazen Notes. Spring 2013. p. 8. Retrieved 16 February 2017. The source uses the phrase "Trinity term".
  6. 1 2 Bruce, Robert (10 July 2015). "10 Questions With Sunday Times Editorial Director, Eleanor Mills". News Academy. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  7. ↑ Boyle, Darren (21 November 2013). "Eleanor Mills appointed chair of Women in Journalism". Press Gazette. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  8. ↑ Dowell, Ben (11 June 2009). "The Times's Saturday editor Eleanor Mills returns to Sunday Times". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  9. ↑ Brook, Stephen (1 August 2008). "Times confirms Eleanor Mills as new Saturday editor". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  10. ↑ "Rebekah Brooks, George Osborne and Charlotte Proudman". The Guardian. 13 September 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  11. ↑ Silvester, Christopher (2 October 2005). "Cupcakes and Kalashnikovs edited by Eleanor Mills and Kira Cochrane". The Sunday Times. London. Retrieved 21 August 2020. (subscription required)
  12. ↑ Abramson, Jill (8 January 2006). "The Lionesses". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
  13. ↑ Greenslade, Roy (21 November 2013). "Mills to chair Women in Journalism". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  14. ↑ Mills, Eleanor (13 March 2021). "A woman's life doesn't end at 40 – so why does society make us feel that way?". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  15. ↑ Brown, Mariella (9 February 2021). "Mirror editor Alison Phillips takes over as WIJ chair". Society of Editors. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  16. ↑ Ponsford, Dominic (26 March 2021). "Eleanor Mills resigns from Society of Editors board and condemns 'structural racism' in UK media". Press Gazette. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  17. ↑ Waterson, Jim (26 March 2021). "Society of Editors board member quits over Meghan racism statement". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  18. ↑ Kiefer, Brittaney (10 March 2021). "'Refinery49 not 29': Times veteran Eleanor Mills sets out mission to reach 'forgotten' demographic". Campaign. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  19. ↑ Mills, Eleanor (8 March 2021). "Eleanor Mills launches media platform to empower women in midlife". Society of Editors. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  20. ↑ "The Time is Noon". InPublishing. 4 August 2021. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  21. ↑ Admin, Blog (25 September 2017). "Eleanor Mills: Women are still portrayed through the lens of an old, male, pale, stale establishment | LSE British Politics". LSE British Politics | Informed debate for better governance. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
  22. ↑ "Why midlife divorce is good for you (as long as you're a woman)". The Telegraph.
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