The Press

Colour Problems

By RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL

LORD THOMSON at seventy, like Ulysses and Mr. Harold Macmillan, is 'a man of many devices.' He has been rebuffed by Sir Hugh Fraser and the board of Outram's in his desire to gain control of the Glasgow Herald: but his offer of £1 a share (£5,250,000 in all) is, notwith- standing, going out to the shareholders.

He is not dismayed by the attitude of Outram's and will not be dismayed if the shareholders do not accept his offer. He tells his friends: 'I don't regard newspapers as a game. They are a business. I have offered what I think the firm is worth. If I don't get it there are lots of other things to do.'

One of them, I learn, is a new project to bring out on September 20 the first of a monthly ,magazine entitled Family Circle. He is going into this new venture fifty-fifty with Mr. Gardiner Cowles, the American proprietor of Look magazine and the Des Moines Register. It will have one hundred pages, half of which will be in colour; printed on glossy paper, eleven inches by eight and a half inches; and it will sell for a shilling.

Lord Thomson believes there is only one way to promote and sell a new magazine of this kind : that is through the supermarkets, the grocers, and the fruiterers. The initial print is for 900,000 copies but Lord Thomson hopes for a very much bigger sale than that. He is already assured of 9,000 outlets. Mr. Cowles has a similar magazine in America which sells 7,500,000 copies and the A and P supermarkets sell six million of a rival paper.

I have made a careful study of the new Observer colour magazine in comparison with

that of the Sunday Times, which was established two and a half years ago. The table at the foot of the next column reveals the vital statistics.

I don't suppose the Observer ever handled so much lolly before; but they have spent about £120,000 promoting their new venture.

The Observer has made a creditable start and if it continues with the same advertising it has now it will be in business. The test will come in

three or four months' time. The advertising rate of the Observer is nearly 60 per cent of that of

the Sunday Times: that is due to their difference in circulation. Though the Observer scores by having four more pages than the Sunday Times the figures in the seventh row of the table should be noted. The Sunday Times's pages are one inch longer and half an inch wider; thus in square inches there are 504 more square inches in the Sunday Times's sixty pages than in the Observer's sixty-four.

A study of the two magazines reveals that they are much of a muchness. The Sunday Times's colour seems slightly superior to that of the Observer: the Observer's black on the black and white pages is blacker and clearer than that of the Sunday Times. One would expect blacker than black.

The contents of both magazines were good. The Paris fashions were more strikingly presented in the Sunday Times: the Observer scored well with the Mountbatten interview. Martin Gilbert's second article---'The Phoney War'—was a worthy and exciting sequel to his previous one, The Phoney Peace,' which itself provoked important new revelations from two surviving Cabinet

Ministers of the period, Sir Reginald Dorman- Smith and Lord Stanhope. This provided the Sunday Times with an admirable front-page story in their news section.

These two coloured magazines naturally have a difficulty in being topical as they have to go to press five or six weeks ahead of publication. At the moment they have a spurious topicality by printing articles on the anniversaries of the begin- nings of the two World Wars. When they have celebrated the endings of them they will have scraped the insides of these particular barrels. The Observer's piece on the London Stock Exchange was overtaken by the march of events and seemed dated in the light of recent develop- ments.

The Sunday Times had a disagreeable but necessary story on dope addicts. I thought the Sunday Times also scored on cookery. Robert Carrier's first piece of four on the cooking of game and an excellent picture of a shot grouse were highly topical. I thought that Mr. Clement Freud's culinary article in the Observer was not as well displayed though it was sound and highly informative.

The Sunday Times scored again in black and white with a penetrating interview with Charlie Chaplin, which constituted a curtain-raiser to the forthcoming serialisation of his memoirs.

There was one sign of a lack of overall editorial co-ordination between the three sections of the Observer. In the Weekend Review we were told of 'Cathy Gale swathed in carat (for a sneak pre- view see "007 fries Oddjob at a fake Fort Knox" in today's Colour Magazine).' All agog to see whether Cathy Gale was swathed in gold carat or in diamond carat I took advantage of the cross reference and turned to the colour magazine. What did I find? A full page representation of a nakedly golden lady under the caption 'That's Shirley Eaton. . . .' Cathy Gale is the name Honor Blackman had in the TV series "the Avengers'—no connection with Bond at all. Itt Goldfinger she is called Pussy Galore; she wears her habitual leather and practises her traditional judo.

Incidentally, is it not against Mr. David Astor's ethical principles to indulge in 'sneak previews' of ladies whether naked or leather-jacketed? My guess is that the Observer film critic was just showing off. All three colour pictures were in fact bought by the Observer through Camera Press from a Life photographer, Mr. Loomis Dean, to

Whom credit was given. Even Mr. Dean was not guilty of 'sneaking.' Mr. Tom Carlile, the film Producers' publicity man—not unnaturally— volunteered the fullest opportunities to the press of the world, including Life and Paris Match, to take 'stills' during the making of the film. The Observer seems to have fouled up an in- herently simple situation through brashly con- tending that it sneaks where no sneaking is re- quired. I trust I have clarified the situation.

STOP PRESS.—A owe my readers an apology. Three weeks ago I said: 'The Telegraph have, however, never considered printing in Germany, as they feel that though speed and economy could be achieved in Germany the consequential rows With the British unions would be too vexatious. They have determined to print with Bemrose. Bemrose is a subsidiary of the News of the World.' 1 must explain how I slipped up. I had been informed that the Weekend Telegraph was to be printed in Germany. I telephoned to Mr. Michael Berry for confirmation. Mr. Berry, who is Editor-in-Chief for life of the Daily Telegraph, denied the story; he volunteered the information that it would be printed by Bemrose and would be published on September 25. Last Monday I received further reports that the supplement was to be printed in Germany. I rang Mr. Berry. He refused to comment except to say that any announcement would appear in his own time and in his own newspaper. Mr. Berry was over- sanguine. On Tuesday afternoon the Londoner's Diary of the Evening Standard broke the story.

The supplement is to be printed in Germany after all by the Burda Group at Darmstadt, Stuttgart and Nuremberg. It will be carried by lorry to the Hook of Holland and shipped to Harwich. I can add a few details to the Evening Standard story. Bemrose did not have enough technically qualified men to do the job. The Society of Lithographic Artists offered to produce additional technicians. This offer was rejected by Bemrose because of a cartel agree- ment they have with other colour printing firms not to 'steal' each other's employees. The four firms who are parties to this are Bemrose, Purnell, Hazell, and Mr. King's Odhams. The trade unions have agreed to the weekend supplement being printed in Germany as a 'temporary expedient.' There is a tacit agreement that when Bemrose can produce the extra trained technicians the week- id supplement will be printed by them and not in Germany.

On Tuesday Mr. Berry was not available for further information, or misinformation. He was reported to be at Cap d'Antibes.