2 DECEMBER 1960, Page 4

D OY THOMSON was beginning to get a name for

being an enlightened newspaper pro- prietor—at least by the standards currently pre- vailing. Word had it that the employees of the recently deceased Empire News were getting very much. better treatment than, say, the Star and News Chronicle men—whether or not this was mainly as a result of rows he had had with the National Journalists' Union over the Scots- man. The benevolence of newspaper proprietors, however, is strictly limited. The employees of the Sunday Graphic—like those of Picture Post. the News Chronicle and the Star--heard of their coming demise first from the news agencies. When papers are changing hands secretly there is obviously a case—though a bad one--against a premature announcement. As the funeral of the Sunday Graphic will not be for some weeks. the fact that the first announcement of its death should have been made to an Exchange Tele- graph reporter appears inexcusable.