Brian Hitchen, CBE (8 July 1936 – 2 December 2013) was a British newspaper editor. Late in his career, he worked as a publisher. Hitchen began his career with the Daily Despatch in Manchester as a copyboy, and then joined the Bury Times as a trainee reporter a year later. His national service followed in which he served in the Parachute Regiment during 1954–56. After national service, following a year on the Manchester Evening News, he began his national newspaper career when he joined the Daily Mirror in their Manchester office. In 1963 he became their foreign correspondent in Paris, and then from 1965 to 1972, he reported from all over the world for the Mirror.