Press
New editors
Bill Grundy
I am a firm believer in Hutber's Law, that immortal Golden Rtile once laid down by the City Editor of the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Patrick Hutber. As well as being the 01(35:1 illuminating law ever enunciated, is also the shortest, for which relie much thanks. It says, quite sitriP'Y' 'Improvement means Deteriora" tion.' Or to put it less succinctlY, whenever we change things; they're likely to be a damn sign' worse after we've finished mucking about than they were before. With these thoughts in mind ail currently viewing with a great (lea .of trepidation the changes that are occurring, or are about to occur, 1011 our national newspapers. In Os! you haven't noticed them, let in' list them for you. The Daily Tele: graph is to have a new editor at th'" end of the year. He is Mr Deedes, until recently the Conger,' vative MP for Ashford in Kent, an,' at one time Harold Macmillan's sT,' of 'Minister of Information.' "irt Deedes's appointment ditches, i% least for the time being, the 11013ea that Mr Colin Welch may have 118 of attaining that lofty pirulac,le' which is a pity. But I will hazarn a guess that Mr Deedes will not tuurne out to be a bad thing for Telegraph. He is a man of grea! charm and equal skill, whose gentle manner conceals an iron deter .0, ation to do what must be done' (And what that is I shall discus5 next week.) The Sunday Express tab, is tf, have a new editor — alwaYs viding they can get rid of n's present one. Mr John Junor hes been the incumbent for what seetri to have been the best part of 01 lifetime and he may prove 00 difficult to winkle out as old J°D Gordon, whose health, I am s°rIle to say, is not all that good the% days. If Mr Gordon leaves us,,ag even he one day must, it is be:,:g whispered in the corridors of r"`o-i great glass building that Mr inrike might give up the editorship. 0:d over the Gordon column, n"„5
become Editor-in-Chief. There is, ' yet, no book on who his successn might be. four
The Daily Mirror is to hav,e,-,..,.or new editors — trust' the xi"' never to do things by halves. Mr To Miles, the present editor, is to ,?,ecorne a Sidney Jacobson-like IrsIg.ure, with the title of Editorial Director, Mr Michael Christiansen, the present deputy, is to take over from Mr Miles. Mr Mike Molloy, who once edited the Mirror Magazine, is to slide into Mr Christiansen's seat. And just in case those three aren't enough to get the damn paper out, Mr Mike Taylor is to be upgraded to the role of Executive Editor.
But the change I am looking at
the the greatest interest is that on k i'vr"e11M1y Express, where Mr Ian ueL011, the Wee Free, has made Way for yet another Scot. Mr Alastair Burnet, fresh from making Such a success of the Economist. I have known Mr Burnet man and boY for many years now, and I Cannot imagine what he is going to do to change the Fleet Street Li4hiunkci into a palace of joy and delight. But I have great hopes. Mr Burnet has been known to take a dram now and then, which will endear him to those of his Underlings who nearly died of thirst (Luring Mr McColl's dismal reign. L'ir Burnet has a great sense of ,llurnour, which makes a change, He Ls,Very clever, which makes an even 'Jigger change. And he is capable of InsPiring loyalty and trust, which is runusual at Castle Despair that as Passed the building the other 'tight I could have sworn I heard them singing a hymn of praise. „1\1Ir Burnet has only been in t'arge of the paper for a week or so it's a little early to be e°111ing to conclusions. But already. IsOntething has happened which has !fed my heart slightly. By the :ItUPle expedient of reducing the of the type face used in the „P!ition' column, he has been able lengthen it considerably. But, aintUch more importantly, he has SO replaced the collection of 'Old 'testament utterances, which is all t Used to consist of, by something 2II.elY seen in the column before. Zgl•Irnent. I will repeat that. Argument.. And furthermore, the argu
-"` ls often about subjects which
have been considered rather ‘r°0 erudite for the average Express lea..,,der in the past. Lai 0 take one example, at random, abst Tuesday's first leader was 0,1!t the presence, at the United Tris, of Yasser Arafat, the head isatioo. `tie Palestine Liberation Organ The, leading article was erainst his presence there, arguing finekarlY and well that he had no pS:It to he a representative of the imalestinians. At no point did those whrrtal Express words "And for of YtLi' appear. Nor were there any (anTose sentences without verbs Whichfre uentl without sense) the Express leaders have been in 0th liabit of barking at us. It was, in if't',er Words, a real leading article. is hat is the sort of thing Mr Burnet llat'°ing to be doing, then I shall Oa' e to take him out and buy him a TaisiL or seven of his favourite thank malt whisky, by way of a
You.
1314 an improvement in the lead 's"g articles is only one thing, and a fLnall thing at that. Much more rls to be done. Mr Burnet Maid remember that he goes to his highly-paid new job with the power of hire and fire. He needs to get rid of a lot of deadwood and to buy himself one or two good colour feature writers, a department in which the Express has always been
singularly deficient. •
What with all the changes happening in all directions Fleet Street should be an interesting place over the next few months. It is therefore, just because I am a pessimist that I still hear, in the empty chambers of my mind, those mordant Hutber words with which I started this article. We shall see, as they say, what we shall see. Incidentally, and apropos of absolutely nothing, did you see Sir Max Aitken's annual report congratulating himself about how accurately Beaverbrook newspapers had predicted their losses this year? Marvellous stuff. Especially the totally unexplained line "But I see a patch of blue sky ahead." And not a Messerschmidt 'in sight, I hope.
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