David Barnett Kogan OBE (born September 1957) [1] is a British media executive, historian and journalist, living in London. [2] He has worked as both a journalist and a senior executive at the BBC, Reuters Television, Granada Channels, Wasserman Media Group and Magnum Photos. He has written about the history of the Labour Party. [3]
Kogan was educated at Haverstock Comprehensive School in Camden, London; and at Balliol College, Oxford. [4]
From 1982 he was a producer at BBC Radio working on Today ; at BBC Television working on Newsnight and Breakfast Time ; and at BBC America. [4] From 1988 he was managing editor and then global managing director at Reuters Television. [4] [5] From 1996 he was executive director at Granada Channels. [6] In 1998 he co-founded media advisory company Reel Enterprises with Sara Munds, and was its Chief executive officer (CEO). [4] In 2011, Reel was acquired by Wasserman Media Group, where Kogan and Munds went to work in media rights. [7] In 2014 he and Munds left and set up Exile Enterprises. [4] Kogan was executive director / CEO of Magnum Photos [8] from 2015 [4] [9] to 2019. [10]
Kogan was "the Premier League's chief media rights adviser from 1998 to 2015 and a key architect of its global financial success". [11] [12] Other media rights clients have included the English Football League, Premiership Rugby, the International Olympic Committee and the National Football League (NFL). [4] He was awarded an OBE in the Queen's 2014 Birthday Honours for services to diplomacy, having been asked to provide advice on FCO Services funds. [4] [13] [14] While at Magnum in 2018, prompted by allegations of sexual misconduct against two of its photographers, Kogan led the agency in creating a formal code of conduct for both its photographers and staff. [15] [16]
Kogan's first book was The Battle for the Labour Party, published with his uncle, Maurice Kogan, in 1981. [17] The later Protest and Power: The Battle for the Labour Party (2019) is a 400-page book that builds on the earlier work, based on many interviews. William Davies described the latter work in The Guardian as a "meticulous review of four decades of intra-party struggles" up to February 2019. [18]
In April 2020 Kogan became a director of LabourList, an independent news site for the Labour Party. [19]