Conservative commentator and former adman Rowan Dean is to give up his regular weekly column in the Australian Financial Review after taking on the editorship of The Spectator Australia magazine.
Dean is a former executive creative director of Euro RSCG (now Havas Worldwide), who since departing the agency in 2010 has become a regular political commentator across The Financial Sky News, Ten, Radio 2UE, the ABC and other media outlets.
“The spectator has always been a provocative magazine, interesting, quirky and relevant ideas on politics and culture,” said Dean, who replaces Tom Switzer in the role. “They are very big shoes to fill. Tom has done an amazing job with The Spectator.”
Dean also confirmed that as part of the move he would give up his weekly column on marketing, run each Monday, in the financial newspaper.
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“No I won’t be doing the marketing column,” he said. “I’ll still be doing the political column in the Financial Review but there is only so much one can do.”
A right wing iconoclast, Dean vowed to continue the editorial direction set by Switzer, who is moving on to do more with the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.
“I’ve been working closely with Tom for a number of years as the associate editor and writing a lot of the editorials. The direction of the magazine is very much the direction Tom set and I will be pushing that forward.”
Nic Christensen