Natalie Nougayrède

Natalie Nougayrède is a French journalist who served as executive editor and managing editor of the French newspaper Le Monde from 2013 to 2014. She was the first woman to head Le Monde since its founding in 1944.

After graduating (1988) from the Institut d’Études Politiques (Institute of Political Studies) in Strasbourg, Nougayrède studied in Paris at the Centre de Formation des Journalistes (Training Centre for Journalists). In 1991 she began reporting for various French media outlets, covering events in eastern Europe following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Four years later she became a full-time editor for the left-leaning newspaper Libération. She joined Le Monde as a full-time correspondent in 1997 and became a prominent voice in the French media through her coverage of Russian politics. Nougayrède received two major French journalism prizes, the Prix de la Presse Diplomatique (2004) and the Albert Londres award (2005), both of them for her coverage of the Chechen conflict and the Beslan school attack.

In 2014 Natalie began working at the British newspaper The Guardian, where she is a columnist and leader writer. She edits the Guardian’s Europe Now series and the This is Europe newsletter.