Odone walks out of New Statesman

BY CHRISTINA FARRELL
CRISTINA Odone, a former editor of The Catholic Herald, has quit as deputy editor of The New Statesman, a post that she had held for the last six years.
Ms Odone, who gave birth to daughter, Isabella, last year, said she was leaving the leftleaning magazine because she wanted to “explore television and do something that is more challenging and involves fewer hours”.
She also has weekly columns in The Times and The Observer and is understood to be talking to Channel 4 about presenting a series of religious programmes. She is not a newcomer to television or radio and still contributes to Radio 4’s prestigious Thought for the Day slot on the Today programme.
Ms Odone has denied reports that her decision to leave was influenced by clashes with editor Peter Wilby over the magazine’s editorial direction. But her departure follows a series of rows with Mr Wilby, the latest over a front cover depicting Tony Blair as Joseph Stalin.
By her own admission Ms Odone is a “mover and shaker”, good at networking. She has said her contribution to The New Statesman was hiring more women writers and changing its readership profile.
Ms Odone was editor of The Catholic Herald from 19921996.