Born in King's Lynn, Norfolk,[1] Bell read jurisprudence at Christ Church, Oxford, and graduated in 1987.[2] She began her career on Big Farm Weekly that year, and then joined Campaign, the magazine for the advertising business, in 1988.[5] In 1990, Bell joined The Observer as a business reporter[6] becoming Media Business Editor in 1995, deputy business editor,[7] and then Business Editor during 1998.[5] In June 2000, Bell became executive editor of the Media Guardian website,[8] and editor-in-chief of Guardian Unlimited in February 2001.[9]
In September 2006, Bell was appointed to the board of Guardian Newspapers Ltd and assumed the role of director of digital content for Guardian News and Media.[10] Bell became a non-executive director of the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian Media Group, in January 2013.[11]
Bell is an editor of Journalism After Snowden: The Future of the Free Press in the Surveillance State,[12] published by Columbia University Press in March, 2017. She is also one of the 25 members of the Information and Democracy Commission launched by Reporters Without Borders.
