Alan Smith (32)

1970s NME editor Alan Smith, along with his assistant editor Nick Logan, was given the challenge of turning around the fortunes of the music weekly and to overtake the market leader of the time, Melody Maker. Under Smith's editorship, writers of the underground press, such as Charles Shaar Murray and Nick Kent, were recruited in order to change the writing style of the paper. As Smith's time as editor came to an end, NME was outselling all of its competitors.