She was previously the media commentator for Crikey and has written ten books She is currently Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the University of Melbourne. Simons also writes for The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Monthly.
Foreign many years, she wrote the "Earthmother" gardening column for The Australian.
She lives in Melbourne.
Simons was a finalist 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 and her book The Content Makers – Understanding the Future of the Australian Media was longlisted for the 2008 non-fiction book Walkley award. Simons has a doctorate from the University of Technology, Sydney and was co-founder, with Melissa Sweet, of the community-funded news site YouComm News.
