A VERY PRIVATE PERSON

Edward Whitley tries to unravel

the enigma of Britain's most elusive press baron

FEELINGS run high against Robert Max- well and Rupert Murdoch, two press barons who have been dubbed respectively `The Bouncing Czech' and 'The Dirty Digger', and whose newspaper empires face higher debts and lower circulation. But one press baron — or rather Viscount — continues to increase his newspapers' circulation and profitability. The sustained success of the un-nicknamed Lord Rother- mere, who owns the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, the Evening Standard and a host of regional newspapers, has gone unnoticed as Maxwell and Murdoch hog the headlines. Although everyone knows about his newspapers, very little is known about Rothermere himself. The library cuttings file is surprisingly slim — 20 years' worth is roughly the same size as six months' of Robert Maxwell. They mostly describe his attendance at a number of dinners and parties (the sort that the ursine Maxwell would give his right arm to attend); the panel-by-panel removal of his family office in Fleet Street — which Evelyn Waugh, recreated as Lord Copper's office in Scoop — to the new headquarters at Kensington; his acceptance of a prestigious award from the Hungarian government and a picture of him taking tea with Prince Charles in the Japanese Garden at Holland Park (which he is funding). The Daily Mail cuttings mainly concern his family, and there are pictures of Rothermere attending his daughter's wedding and granddaughter's christening rather like snapshots in the family album — which in a way they are. Other than that there are few pictures of him. Before he gave a couple of interviews in 1988, the Financial Times were still publishing a photograph of him taken in the early 1970s complete with black curly hair and sideboards.

Compared with the Maxwell and Mur- doch ones, the libel file is also extremely thin. One notable case was when Rother- mere received an out of court settlement from the publishers of the memoirs of the late Sir Denis Hamilton, former chairman of Times Newspapers, who alleged that Rothermere was 'too aristocratic to get on with Lord Matthews, chairman of the Daily Express, who was once a Brixton bricklayer'. Privacy is an important issue to Rothermere. In 1988 there was an amusing exchange of letters in the Financial Times between himself and his editor of the Mail on Sunday, Stewart Steven. Steven had argued aginst the FT editorial which im- plied that press intrusion into the private lives of the rich and famous should be limited by the Press Council. Rothermere wrote back a snorter saying that his editor's policy would mean that 'as citizens succeed in this material world, they would be increasingly subject to the obscene inquisi- tion of the current hypocritical journalism of the sensational press'. He mischievious- ly added that even the upright Mr Steven, if he had the seven-year itch, might have a double-page spread in the News of the World to look forward to.

Privacy is important to Rothermere not only because of the moral standards of his newspapers, but because intrusive and malicious journalism could threaten his own way of life. The bizarre behaviour of his separated wife 'Bubbles' has not rub- bed off on him, and his Korean consort in Paris, Maiko Lee, has received little atten- tion. Maiko organised a surprise 60th birthday party for Rothermere at the Ritz and accompanied him to the Seoul Olym- pics. Although their relationship is quite widely known, there has been no press intrusion — let alone a double page spread in the News of the World.

`Rothermere is very, very clever,' said Lord Weidenfeld, a long-time friend. `Everyone considered him stupid at school, and he was always fairly self-deprecating. But look at him: he lives the sort of life he wants to live in Paris, and there aren't many men who do that, and he has showed his newspaper rivals a clear pair of heels he has a profitable daily, a profitable Sunday and the only London evening paper.'

Rothermere has come up the difficult way. His father ran Associated Newspap- ers until he was 73 and only relinquished control in 1971, by which time Rothermere was 46. His relationship with his father was a difficult one. His father did not attend his wedding, and married for the third time in 1966, producing another son — Rother- mere's half-brother — in 1967. For a long time Rothermere worked his way around the office.

`He started at the bottom,' a former editor of the Daily Sketch told me. 'He worked in circulation, advertising, pub- lishing. He got to know all the printers and all the journalists. This has stood him in good stead. When he finally took control he knew the industry backwards and we respected him for it. But it was a long wait.'

By 1971 the Daily Mail was in a crisis. The then managing director, Marmaduke Hussey, was convinced that the Mail and the Express should merge. Rothermere's father encouraged this idea, but as the talks floundered Rothermere — until then a quiet figure — seized his opportunity. His father abruptly resigned, Rothermere became chairman and Marmaduke Hussey went off to the Times. Within weeks Rothermere had made the two fun- damental changes which transformed the Daily Mail into a successful paper for the next generation — he brought in David English as editor and reduced the paper to tabloid size — 'compact' as it is called by the Mail staff.

`The beauty of Associated Newspapers being a family company,' a member of the Harmsworth family pointed out, 'is that we can make far-sighted decisions. We make investments for the next generation. Ours have all paid off. The other families in Fleet Street have fallen by the wayside.'

It has taken 20 years to overhaul the Daily Express, but the gap is now clear. This year the Daily Mail's circulation averages 1.7 million; the Daily Express has collapsed from 3.5 million in 1971 to an average of 1.5 million. Over the last three years the readership of the Daily Mail has remained static whilst the Daily Express has fallen by 11 per cent. But the real difference lies in the Daily Mail's superior `readers' profile' which enables it to charge over 30 per cent more than the Express for advertising space. The Daily Mail readers are younger and more affluent than the Daily Express ones — the sort that adver- tisers love. At a guess I imagine that both the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of York read the Daily Mail whilst the Queen Mother reads the Daily Express. The only other competitor in the middle market is Today with a circulation of just 480,000, down 17 per cent since January and just beginning to lose Murdoch a good deal of money.

Rothermere inherited the Daily Mail and the Evening News. He closed the Evening News in 1979 in exchange for 50 per cent of the Evening Standard — and he acquired the other 50 per cent from Trafal- gar House in 1985. But like his great-uncle Lord Northcliffe he has also invented a new national, the Mail on Sunday, which was launched in 1982. The launch was against all advice, and indeed for five months it was a disaster. It was relaunched with a new editor and YOU magazine, but made losses for the first four years. Yet Rothermere's instinct eventually proved right — the Mail on Sunday is the middle market leader with sales growing to 2 million whilst the Sunday Express has fallen from 2.6 million to 1.6 million.

The dual growth of the Mail has been sustained but gradual. The saga of the London Daily News showed Rothermere in an altogether more carnivorous mood. In February 1987 Maxwell launched the London Daily News to challenge the Even- ing Standard's monopoly in London. On the same day Rothermere surprised Lon- doners by resurrecting the defunct London Evening News — and astonished Maxwell by offering it at 15p, 5p cheaper. He had had the idea whilst in Tokyo and had telephoned the Standard editor and told him to launch it as a spoiler. Maxwell halved his price to 10p, saying, 'I'm just sad — this is a battle which should be decided on quality.' Soon the London Evening News was selling for 10p, then 5p, whilst Rothermere's Standard remained at 20p and, infuriatingly for Maxwell, actually increased sales from 511,000 to 560,000. Faced with vast amounts of unsold news- papers and losses of £700,000 a week, Maxwell closed the London Daily News in July — his mistake had lost him some £50 million.

By the time Rothermere returned the handy corpse of the London Evening News to its grave, he had not only trounced Maxwell but also scared off Murdoch who had been muttering about launching the London Post. Lord Rothermere broke his usual silence to admit that 'squashing Bob Maxwell gave one enormous pleasure'.

The key to Associated Newspapers' suc- cess has been Rothermere's relationship with Sir David English, initially editor of the Daily Mail and now editor-in-chief of all the Rothermere titles.

`They are immensely loyal to one another,' says one man who has worked with them; 'no other proprietor and editor have a relationship anything like as good. It fosters a unity all the way down the paper.'

Vicki Woods, now editor of Harpers & Queen, used to edit the Daily Mail's Male & Female section. `Rothermere never, never interferes,' she pointed out, 'not like Maxwell and Murdoch who lean on their editors. He runs the paper in a very paternalistic way, he nurses it and looks after everyone and all the journalists love him, but he is almost religious about keeping his distance.'

Whilst he does not interfere in the editorial side of his papers, Rothermere interferes a good deal in a side which few other newspaper proprietors know as much about — the printing. Perhaps this stems from his apprenticeship working around the group. Associated Newspapers certain- ly has the best printing and colour technol- ogy as well as the 'clean print' which doesn't rub off on your hands.

`He really understands all those machines,' said Vicki Woods. `Fle is a great believer in the power of the written word and he has mastered the technology.

Along with the newspaper success has been financial success which has involved Rothermere juggling with businesses which have nothing to do with newspapers, not- ably North Sea oil. During the 1970s he had built up a large North Sea oil company which typically contributed some 40 per cent of Associated Newspapers' Trading profits. Indeed in 1982 North Sea oil contributed £6 million towards trading profits of £5.3 million — in other words it was subsidising the then loss-making news- papers. The oil interests were sold in 1988 to pay for Associated Newspapers moving its printing to Docklands and its staff to Kensington. Since then the shares of the Daily Mail & General Trust have risen from £18 to their current price of £56, valuing Rothermere's family interest at £280 million.

How can that sum be increased further? From time to time Rothermere has discus- sed the attractions of the tabloid market. The Daily Star, owned by the Daily Ex- press, with a circulation of just 875,000, looks supremely vulnerable up against the Sun and the Mirror with 3.7 million each. If Rothermere stepped into this market, the headlines would really fly.

But at the moment both the Sun and the Mirror look secure. Until one of them falters, Rothermere will be content to milk the middle market and amass some cash currently at the rate of £42 million a year. As he does so he can gloat over Maxwell's and Murdoch's spiralling debts. If one of them were to fall apart — and their newspapers tell of stranger stories — then Rothermere would be well placed to pick up the pieces. He might even get his picture into one.

Edward Whitley's next book, Gerald Dur- rell's Army, will be published by John Murray next spring.

`Women, my dear Angela, keep diaries. Men keep journals.'