The Press

By RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL

?THE new consortium which has been formed to I wrest Mr. Roy Thomson's Scottish television licence from him is a curious medley of interests. It includes: Outrams (the proprietors of the Glasgow Herald); the Daily Express; the Princi- pal of St. Andrew's University; Sir Hugh Fraser of the House of Fraser and of Harrod; John Bannerman, Chairman of the Scottish Liberal Party; John Boulting, the film producer (British Lion); Mr. Arthur Hill, Chairman of the. Braemar Knitwool Company; Stanley Cursiter, the painter; Mr. Joseph H. Wright, a medical consultant; and the eighty-one-year-old Earl of Rosebery. Only Uncle Tom Cobley is con- spicuous by his absence. Mr. Max Aitken, Chair- man of the Board of Beaverbrook Newspapers, has informed the Daily Herald: 'We are only a junior member of a group who have submitted .plans to run an educational, cultural and enter- tainment station.'

I asked Mr. Aitken whether there would also be advertising. 'Of course,' he said. Mr. Aitken further tells me that if his group obtains the Scottish franchise the public will become the majority shareholders. 'It was the policy of the group,' said Mr. Aitken, 'to retain the existing staff including, if he would like it, Mr. Roy Thomson.' I asked him if Mr. Thomson would remain Chairman if the plan comes to fruition. 'I doubt that,' I was told. It seems strange that Lord Beaverbrook should be prepared to swallow so much principle, pride and prejudice for so small a stake (under 20 per cent) in an industry which he so often denounced. Mr. Aitken counters such suggestions in a delightfully disarming fashion : 'It is a very interesting industry. I would like to know more about it. We never had anything against it; indeed, we welcomed the Bill which set it up. Roy Thomson has taken eight or nine millions out of Scottish television. Now that there is no longer a monopoly and the oppor- tunity of making so much money no longer exists, we no longer have any objections to participating in it.' This would seem to give com- merce an entirely new look.

Mr. Aitken is not over-confident that he and his associates will obtain the franchise. 'The sitting tenant is bound to be in a strong position.'

Lord Beaverbrook tells me : have nothing to do with it. I will never have anything to do with it. 1 have great difficulty in persuading people that it is Max Aitken who runs the Daily Express. I have nothing to do with it.'

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The fight between the 'heavy Sundays' goes on relentlessly. •Roy Thomson has, it is true, lost two stones in weight, but this is not due to worry: the Sunday Times continues to grow and is winning overwhelmingly. No one should underestiMate the pertinacity.of David Astor and the Observer or of Michael Berry and the Sunday Telegraph; nor, indeed. the depth of their purses, The latest assessment I have been able to make of the circulations and advertising revenue of the three papers tells its own story:

NoVi• 11114 FIGURES OF cIR( ULA-OoN : Sunday Times ..

1.220.000

Observer . . ..

715,000

Sunday Telegraph

660.000

ADVERTISING REVENUE FOR NOVEMBER:

Sunday Times £350,000 Observer .. f190,000 Sunday Telegraph .. 100,000

ALL THREE PAPERS HAD MAXIMUM SIZE:

Sunday Times .. .. 48 pages

Observer .. .. 40 pages Sunday Telegraph .. .. 32 pages

ADVERTISING UP TO THE END OF NOVEMBER COMPARED WITH THE SAME MONTH LAST YEAR:

Sunday Times was 732 columns up Observer was 338 columns up Sunday Telegraph was 241 columns down The commanding lead in circulation and ad- vertising of the Sunday Times over its two com- petitors takes no account of the colour magazine which is given away with the paper. (Of course, the colour magazine has probably been responsible for adding nearly 200,000 to the circulation of the paper.) In November, two of the magazine's issues were of sixty pages—the maximum that can be printed at the moment; and the other two were of forty-eight. I am told that it breaks even on thirty.-six.

In a recent speech, Mr. Roy Thomson said that the colour magazine lost money during the first six months of this year, but would make a profit during the last half of the year. It should show a profit on all issues during 1964.

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'Sweet are the uses of adversity,' wrote Shakespeare. 'Sweet are the uses of adver- tisement,' cry the advertisers. Ingenious poli- ticians are able to profit from the second maxim without calling for the paid assistance of Colman Prentis and Varley.

Last Tuesday week at about midnight the Socialists contrived to have the House 'counted out' before Mr. Julian Amery, the Minister of Aviation, could reply to the Opposition's criti- cisms of the TSR2. If Mr. Amery had been allowed to make his speech at that hour of the night it might have made a paragraph hither or. thither. However, he took advantage of the obfuscating tactics of the Opposition and gave an exclusive interview to the Defence Corre- spondent of The Times which was published on Thursday, November 28, Mr. Amery had the opportunity of expressing his views, to which The Times devoted nearly one column of what they are pleased to call the 'main bill page.'

True politicians are 'their own press agents. If they know their way about they can get, their views across without the help of professional advertisers.

Lady Jean Campbell's reports from Dallas in last week's Evening Standard were a shining example to all other newspaper reporters. Too many British reporters in America and too many American reporters in this country feel they have discharged their obligations to their editors and readers if they rewrite in elegant form the stories they read in Washington, New York and London. Too few get out on the job and when they do they tend to tag together. It is refreshing when one sees writers like Lady Jean and Mr. Clive Irving of the Sunday Times who really dig the facts out for themselves. Of course, Lady Jean has printer's ink in her veins. It is not for nothing that she is the grand-daughter of Lord Beaverbrook.