The Press
Observations on the Observer
Dennis Hackett
The Observer, which always has my affection if not my continual admiration, has stirred things up a little in the quality field by its decision to move its print out of the Times next year into the Financial Times and the Yorkshire Post. But this uncharacteristically decisive move, it has not only improved its chances in the shortterm but enabled itself to adopt a more competitive posture in the long. First reactions were that The Observer would sell its interest in the Printing House Square property and smile all the way to the bank, but the Observer last Sunday denied this and it seems they have chosen the much more beneficial option, City rents being what they are, of leasing part of the property and deriving a very useful income to offset their costs. And not only will the deal benefit the Observer in terms of saving and income it will also bring it the benefits of a northern print and access to the offset colour facilities of Yorkshire Post newspapers — should they be required. It is, of course, appropriate that the Observer should have a little good luck. Life has not been easy there and, money has been scarce. Above them the Sunday Times, 600,000 ahead of them in sales larger by some twenty-four pages even in mid-June, and only lp dearer. Below them, the Sunday Telegraph, only some 40,000 copies poorer, ten pages lighter on a com parable weekend and 2p cheaper, its losses more than amply repaid by the thriving daily. It may even have been the unex pected prospect of a break after so much unrelieved gloom that made the Observer so terse in its announcement and unforthcoming in answer to questions. It takes, some time be believe in luck. Possibly a smile will break forth when they know the extent of the redundancy charges their arch-competitor, Lord Thom son, will be faced with on behalf of Times Newspapers Ltd. There is no doubt that that is where the responsibility will be and it may well prove, as the print unions have a deep aversion to redundancy, more than a little local difficulty. No mention has been made so far as to facsimile printing, which would make even more sense of the Observer's move and provided a muchneeded breach in union recalcitrance. It will be interesting to see what effect this economic change of life has on the old Observer. David Astor has laboured there long beyond the normal expectation of life of the ordinary editor. It is still, in my view, a better-written paper than the Sunday Times, which indulges many of its writers beyond their style or content in order to push all those advertisements apart. Its news pages are, I think, better handled technically. The Sunday Times seems over the last few years to have been_ suffering from a bloated view of things and a massive dullness. It is still a Sunday paper one cannot do without, thanks to its occasionally brilliant reporting and its periodical exposures but it does go in for columns of dispensable material and undoubtedly suffers from an apparent feeling — uncommon in most newspapers — that length is no problem. Commercially it is very good advertising buy leaving the Observer with those customers with more limited budgets who have to settle for smaller things. But I wonder what would happen if the readership of its various sections were given separately — as is that of the colour section. There is still a remarkable amount of duplication between the readerships of the Sunday Times, Observer and Sunday Telegraph, but it must be falling as the acres of print become more daunting. The coverage and compactness of the Sunday Telegraph is undoubtedly to its advantage. The Observer scores to some extent by its writing but this is offset by a less sure approach to what it might consider its market, than in years gone by. The Observer seems over the years to have lost a lot of its daring and most of its nerve. In a paper caught tween one of the size and sort of the SundayTimes, which always has compensatory things to offset its faults, and the compactness and sure market touch of the Sunday Telegraph, it is vital to bind readers of like attitude to retain loyalty. It is here that the Observer has been failing and colour section minipartworks are no substitute. It may be that a change of printing will lead to a change of heart or a rediscovery of the old one. Let's hope so. Fresh starts in Fleet Street don't come every day.
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