Watching brief - Amanda Platell on the agenda-setting Sunday Times
Published 15 March 2004
The editor of the Times was forced to apologise to his readers in Middle England for distributing the compact version of the paper to their homes. They were not amused
The full-page letter from the editor of the Times, Robert Thomson, assuring readers they can have their paper whatever size they want, masks a marketing muddle. The Times has been inadvertently distributing the tabloid edition, so loved by commuters, to the homes of Middle England loyalists, who are not amused.
The valuable, home-delivery, usual Times readers are unlikely ever to appreciate the compact version - not for them a tabloid of any description - but it was never intended for them anyway. So why are they getting it?
More puzzling still was my recent experience commuting to and from Manchester several times a week. Manchester Piccadilly Station houses an impressive display of huge drop posters advertising the Times tabloid and, not surprisingly, free copies of the Times were being given away on the trains to demonstrate the great advantage of the smaller format on journeys. Unfortunately, the sample copies were all broadsheets.
The only people more cynical than journalists are the journalists who write about journalists. Hence Stephen Glover's new project, tentatively named the World, has received universal bad press. Even the Economist suggested this cerebral venture would be of no interest to women, as it would have no celebrities.
Yet there is a gap in the market now for a cleverly written, politically balanced newspaper. Since the Independent abandoned its independence and settled happily into its left-of-centre niche, no newspaper has even attempted to present a world-view from all perspectives, despite what they may think. The Times gets closest to this objectivity, especially with its news coverage, but none achieves it.
So there is a market, albeit small, of wealthy AB readers who want something else. Glover, Francis Wheen and Frank Johnson bring intelligence, wit and credibility to the project. They need to get more women writers on board, but having Vicky Unwin as their managing director is a step in the right direction.
I hope they find their finance - then perhaps the 100-plus "household names" who have contacted them confidentially wanting to write for the World would be in business.
After a week of hideous headlines for Prince Charles following the American broadcasting of "the Diana tapes", the palace attempts a little reputation recovery of its own. Pictures of a contrite and newly shorn Prince Harry, playing football with orphans and Aids victims, appear in all the papers. Just like Mum.
With all the deftness one would expect from a man who made his reputation spinning for another bunch of arrogant, overpaid, privileged prats (Manchester United footballers), Paddy Harverson, Charles's latest spin-doctor, is responsible for the Aids/orphan photo op.
One minute, Charles is pleading for an end to the Diana stories "for the sake of William and Harry", the next, he's using Harry to divert attention from his own appalling behaviour towards his dead wife. The next time Dad gets into trouble, Harverson will have William and Harry walking hand in hand through a minefield.
The Sunday Times is on a roll. The story of the whistle-blower Steve Moxon and the migration cover-up was the latest in a long line of brilliant exclusives - exposing the doctor behind the MMR-autism link; the dirty tricks behind the honours list, which led to a parliamentary inquiry; the Manchester United feud between Alex Ferguson and his Irish backers; the letter from Greg Dyke to Tony Blair complaining of systematic bullying, to name just a few. And they got Andrew Gilligan.
It already is a terrific package, with two of my favourite newspaper magazines - Culture and the revamped Style - but now the front is living up to the rest. When a Sunday paper sets the news agenda for the week, it's doing its job.
It would not surprise me if Anne Robinson had had it built in to her Daily Telegraph contract that she could only be replaced by a female TV presenter of her choosing. And who wouldn't choose Katie Derham? For those readers unfamiliar with her presentation of the evening regional news on ITV, suffice to say she is a beautiful young woman with long legs. I'm not being sexist by not mentioning her intellectual skills: I could not honestly do so without being thought unkind. In her column, Katie plodded through her experiences reporting on the Oscars. This time, alas, she had to watch it in London, and saw Eamonn Holmes "affecting great interest in the frocks".
If you'd been watching GMTV, love, you'd have seen Eamonn complaining non-stop that no one was interested in the frocks, especially not him.
I never thought I'd say it, but bring back Anne Robinson.
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