Head of a clan independent English newspaper featured in series (9)
I believe the answer is:
chieftain
'head of a clan' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'independent english newspaper featured in series' is the wordplay.
'independent' becomes 'i'.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'newspaper' becomes 'FT' (Financial Times newspaper).
'featured in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'series' becomes 'chain' (chain is a kind of series).
'i'+'e'+'ft'='ieft'
'ieft' put within 'chain' is 'CHIEFTAIN'.
(Other definitions for chieftain that I've seen before include "Head of tribe" , "Head of a clan" , "Clan leader" , "Tribe's leader" , "Tribal leader" .)