THE PRESS

Sunshine breakfasts, Murdoch's corn

RILL GRUNDY

The News of the World this weekend carried' a remarkable front page advertise- ment. It said 'Happy Birthday to the Sun". The Sun, of course, is its Bouverie Street stablemate. The text of the greeting reads 'On Tuesday, Britain's brightest, boldest daily paper, the super Soaraway Sun, cele- brates its first birthday. In just twelve months, the Sun has increased its circula- tion by ONE MILLION copies a day. This is a feat unparalleled in publishing history.'

Well, Ldon't know whether it is unparal- leled or not, and I don't know how precise that figure of one million is, but I do know that a lot of people in the business believe it to be dead accurate, give or take a copy or two. And if it is, then we have got to admit straight away that Mr Rupert Mur- doch, his editor Mr Larry Lamb, and their staff, have together pulled off a remarkable feat over the past year.

I don't think that last November you'd have found many people who'd have fore- cast what has actually happened. Of course you'd have found those who thought that Rupert Murdoch was a great operator and that he was therefore likelier than most to save the Sun. But a succes de circulation on this scale? Nobody surely would have been daft enough to forecast that? Not even Mr Murdoch or Mr Lamb, I would guess, both of whom I met at the time of the launching, and both of whom seemed to me very tired men, putting on a brave face and hoping for the best, knowing that things had been so rushed there really hadn't been time to do all the preparation they'd have desired. In fact, as I remember, there hadn't even been time to hire all the staff they wanted, and at the little evening buffet party Mr Murdoch threw to celebrate the launch I had the distinct feeling that from time to time our host was going to rush out to help get his baby to bed. _ And now, twelve months later, circula- tion has gone up from three quarters of a million to one and three quarters of a mil- lion, and this at a time when newspaper circulations, with one or two exceptions, have fallen. Who said the age of miracles was past? But how has it happened, and more importantly, what effect has it had, and what is it likely to have?

There are various suggestions about the how of it. The News of the World, which might be suspected of not being entirely objective, says: 'We think it is because the Sun has kept all the promises it made when it was launched on 17 November last year'. It then doesn't actually list those promises, but it goes into a description of today's Sun which at various points doesn't seem too far from the truth. For example: 'rr is BOLD. IT is BRASH, IT is UNINHIBITED'. I wouldn't argue with any of that. I might, however, choose to take issue with the NOW on one or two of the other points, such as 'IT DOES NOT SIT on fences. IT DOES NOT curry favour. rr has become the most PRO- VOCATIVE, most INFORMATIVE, most ENTER-. TAINING daily paper in the business. IT is NEVER boring.' But I can't disagree when the NOW ends by saying 'And it's still only 6d'.

As I said there are other opinions about how the miracle has happened. I remember that I took part in a radio discussion a week or two after the Sun's launch and one member of the panel observed that the paper appeared to her to be marching into the 'seventies by imitating the Daily Mirror of the 'thirties.

There is no doubt that the Sun is a for- mula paper. There is no doubt that, at least for the time being, the formula is highly successful. An examination of the paper every day for a week would enable you to construct the formula for yourself, but the News of the World does it for you

at the end of its greetings ad. It says: 'Au. THIS WEEK the Sun will be celebrating its astonishing success. EVERY DAY there will be a sparkling new contest. You can win shares in the company which manages tom JONES. Or how about a free trip to Aus- tralia? Or how would you like free beer and groceries for a year? EVERY DAY there

will be extracts from a sensational new

book, PAIRINGS, in which two famous Ameri- can psychologists tell you how to meet— and keep—your ideal mate. EVERY DAY there will, as always, be all that's best in NEWS, SPORT, and PICTURES.'

Don't laugh. There, as plain as the circu- lation.figures, is the formula. From edition one it has varied hardly at all. Tits and tips, somebody once described it as. And so it is, as long as you take 'tips' not just to mean tips on racing but on everything. from baking cakes to bringing up babies, from being a sensible housewife to being The Sensuous Woman. But even a formula has to be handled with skill to produce the results you intend, and this one has been.

However, a newspaper formula needs something else, if it is to work. It needs money, and this Mr Murdoch has supplied in plenty. If his competitors had been able to spend as much on their papers, resisting the Sun's challenge, as Mr Murdoch has spent in promoting it things might have been different. At least one paper is said to have held its own while its 'Sun resistance fund' lasted, but to have got into difficulties the moment it ran out.

It is the combination of Mr Murdoch's money and the skill of his staff that has made the Sun a. serious threat to the popular newspapers. Ask their editors. Ask them about their circulatiorls since last November. Most of them will look pretty sour. Then ask them about price increases. They will probably look even sourer. One or two of them have a more than sinking feeling that after the next round of price increases is announced, the Sun will go on saying that it is 'still only 6d', and will pick up even more circulation while it does so.

The effect of the Sun has been, there- fore, to take circulation from most of its rivals. This tendency doesn't look like dim- inishing, so the future of one or two news- papers may well soon be in jeopardy. This would be a disaster, since the death of any newspaper diminisheth all of us. Even worse, it may lead to a lowering of standards in a circulation war of a kind that news- papers have seen before, that nearly killed them last time, and that might damage them even more next time. (Not that this will stop the war breaking out. Many newspaper managements are like Great War generals —they are convinced the next big push will do it.) So God knows what the long term outlook is. Perhaps we shall see the 'rationalisation' of the industry that so many people from Lord Thomson downwards, or upwards, see, with say a couple of qualities and a couple of populars and that's your lot. If that is the prospect, it seems almost in the worst possible taste to wish the Sun a happy birthday and many of them. but it seems miserable in the extreme to with- hold greetings for a paper that has done so well for itself in its first year. Ever the op- timist, I shall Wish the Sun all the best. and the same to all the rest.

Which seems a good point to &Iwoe that for two and a half years I've been rabbit-, ing on about communications. occasionally - TV and radio, but mainly about newspapco.. It's been a time of change. And now I think it's time for a change.