Paul Murray (journalist)
Paul Murray is a former working journalist and later editor of The West Australian newspaper who resigned and was later retained to write opinion articles for the same newspaper. Murray was the longest serving newspaper editor in Australia when he resigned in February, 2000.
Biography
Early life
Murray was born in Mt Lawley in 1950, and grew up in the eastern Perth suburb of Guildford in the Swan Valley. His father, Keith Murray, was a journalist at The West Australian for a decade from 1948 and his older brother Kim was a reporter at the Daily News. He attended Guildford Primary School and then Guildford Grammar School. He initially studied geology at the University of Western Australia before changing career.
Career
He took a cadetship at The West Australian in 1970 and through the 1970s worked variously from its Fremantle, Kalgoorlie, Perth, Sydney and Melbourne offices. He worked at the Western Mail from 1981, before returning to The West Australian as chief of staff in 1987. In March 1990 he was appointed editor of the newspaper where he began his career in 1970. He quit The West ten years later to become a morning talk-back announcer on Perth commercial radio station, 6PR, before leaving in 2006 over a contract-renewal disagreement (he rejoined in 2011). In 2006 he returned to The West Australian as a columnist and feature writer.