Margaret Simons is an Australian academic, freelance journalist and author. She is currently the media commentator for Crikey

Crikey

Crikey is an independent Australian electronic magazine comprising an open access website and an email newsletter available to subscribers. Well known in Australian political, media and business circles, Crikey was described by former Federal Opposition Leader Mark Latham as the "most popular...

 and has written ten books.

Career

Simons was nominated for a Walkley Award for journalism in 2007 for the story Buried in the Labyrinth, about the release of a pedophile into the community, published in Griffith Review

Griffith Review

The Griffith Review is a quarterly publication featuring essays, reportage, memoir, fiction, poetry and artwork from established and emerging writers and artists. Each edition of the Review is developed around a contemporary theme enabling the issues to be aired and discussed and to put the debate...

 and her book The Content Makers – Understanding the Future of the Australian Media was longlisted for the 2008 non-fiction book Walkley award.

Simons also writes for The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Monthly. For many years, she wrote the Earthmother gardening column for The Australian.

Simons has a PhD from the University of Technology, Sydney

University of Technology, Sydney

The University of Technology Sydney is a university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The university was founded in its current form in 1981, although its origins trace back to the 1870s. UTS is notable for its central location as the only university with its main campuses within the Sydney CBD...

 and was co-founder, with Melissa Sweet

Melissa Sweet

Melissa Sweet is a multi-award winning Australian freelance journalist and author. Formerly employed by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Bulletin magazine and Australian Associated Press, she specialises in writing about health and medical issues....

, of the community-funded news site YouComm News

YouComm News

YouCommNews is an Australian non-profit organisation based on the US group Spot.us which brings journalists, publishers and the public together for crowd-sourcing of ideas and resources for high quality, community driven journalism...

. She lives in Melbourne with her husband and two children.

Articles

• Duty of Care, August 2010, The Monthly
  The Monthly
  The Monthly is an Australian national magazine of politics, society and the arts, which is published eleven times per year on a monthly basis except the December/January issue. Founded in 2005, it is published by Melbourne property developer Morry Schwartz...
  
  
• Buried in the Labyrinth