18 SEPTEMBER 1964, Page 9

The Press

Grey Dawn

By RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL

A ye Caesar, morituri to saluiant. Thus the A Herald obsequiously saluted Mr. Cecil Harmsworth King; obsequiously connived at their own demise; and with their dying breath heralded the Sun. Vae victis. It was not for noth- ing that Mr. King said two years ago, The Cross I had to bear is the Daily Herald.' It is true that it has been costing him (I beg pardon, his share- holders) nearly £1,000,000 a year to keep. the Daily Herald going. It is also true that he gave an undertaking to Mr. Harold Wilson that he Would not close the Daily Herald before the general election. Whether the breach of Mr. King's promise has gravely disadvantaged the Labour Party in the forthcoming election remains a matter of conjecture.

On Tuesday morning the sun rose to grey, Washed-out skies. The much-heralded Sun looked to most of Fleet Street like a grey wash- out. Miraculously, the Daily Herald, on its death bed, had achieved a miracle—the quickest reincarnation in history. It looked as if this was Where we came in; but of course no one is ever reincarnated in their identical integuments. The star was chubbier and it had a strong streak of the Daily Mirror in it. But it had the same small- Size page, grey debilitated newsprint, and insipid Printing.

There was an excellent piece on what doctors think of birth-control pills; and, of course, it had some good new features. The technique of print- ing such columns as those of James Cameron and Dee Wells with news stories on the same Pages was successful; but there was a dreadful lot of old hat in the paper. In the middle there Was a double spread on Bond and Goldfinger. I seem to have remembered reading quite enough about Goldfinger already in the Daily Express and in the Observer's Colour Magazine. Half the

back page was taken up with a striking picture of a British Corporal, serving in North Borneo with the Green Jackets, having a shower. In the background was another soldier holding a Sten gun. The caption tells us, 'Another Green Howard stands armed nearby.'

The Sun does not appear,to cater for the Army. The Green Jackets and the Green Howards are separate regiments: the former are in North Borneo, the latter are in Libya. Mr. Cudlipp had better try selling his paper to the Marines.

These are the practical, crude, callous terms in which the newspaperindustry (for that is what it has become) has to be considered today. It is very like the sale of detergents. If Lever Bros. find that one of their competing detergent firms fails to prove that it is the whitest, it might well be abandoned. And the advertising appropriations could well be allotted to a new one which claimed it washed 'jolly white.' It would be hard to fault this.

In just the same way Mr. Cecil 'Harmsworth King can handle the sale of his innumerable newspapers. He can assassinate any ones he likes, he can create new ones at vast expense. He does not need to consult his shareholders: they, poor boobies, will go along with him: as long as they get their dividends.

The papers controlled (shareholders should mark they are not owned) by Mr. Cecil Harms- worth King have no roots or opinions of their own: they are born and killed as seems suitable to the financial dispositions of Mr. King. Some people call this Freedom of the Press. It is not my idea of freedom. It looks as if freedom is to be crucified along with the Daily Herald: well, it's just King's Cross. 1 trust he will survive the crucifixion.

The Sun is being introduced against a curiously defeatist background. Even Mr. Hugh Cudlipp and Mr. Cecil- Harmsworth King do not think that it will settle down much above 1,800,000. The Daily Mail, with all its prestige, cannot be making very much money at 2,400,000. These statistics are naturally much in the fore- front of the extremely ingenious brains of Messrs. King and Cudlipp. They brush them aside by saying, 'Well, we're losing a million a year on the Herald anyway, so what the hell.' It is doubtless better to spend a million a year on a child than on a corpse.

* The Observer Colour Magazine does not seem to be going as well as most people predicted. The first issue had sixty-four- pages against the Sun- day Times sixty. It had eighteen and a quarter pages of colour advertising against the Sunday Times nineteen; and eight and a quarter black and white pages of advertising against the Sun- day Times six and a half.

This week the Observer has the same number of pages (fifty-six) as has the Sunday Times. But the Observer only has six pages of colour adver- tising against nineteen in the Sunday Times; and four and a half black and white against six and a half black and white in the Sunday Times.

I can only make a guess; but I should think the Observer must have lost £25,000 on last Sun- day's Supplement.

For the first issue the Observer (which is printed by The Times at Printing House Square) produced 900,000. It is said they sold the lot. Last week they tried to print a million. This meant going to press very early, and in consequence a lot of the sports results did not appear in the early editions. When the sale settles down this

difficulty will be obviated: - •

Incidentally, I hear that the Sunday Times put

on 40,000 with their deeply poignant first instal- ment of Charlie Chaplin's memoirs.

I hear that war has been declared between tha newsagents and the Weekend Telegraph due to be published on September 25. A few days ago the Telegraph told the newsagents that they would give them the same terms as they are accepting from the Sunday Times and the Observer for their Colour Supplements—namely Id. from the publishers and id. from those to whom they distribute it. The newsagents said they would like to discuss this. The Telegraph riposted that of course they would be glad to discuss details with them, but those were their terms.

These terms are satisfactory to the newsagents who sell across the counter. They may prove highly unsatisfactory to those who have to deliver : most newsagents do a varying amount of both. The newsagent wbo has a large delivery round may say to those who buy the Daily Tele- graph, 'If you want the Supplement you can come and get it for free.' Alternatively, they may say, 'We shall have to charge you 2d. a week for this delivery on a Friday.' Then perhaps the readers may .rebel. But these are early days. Mr. Berry has not yet unsheathed the sword of Ramillies.