Watching brief - Amanda Platell judges the British Press Awards
Published 22 March 2004
On the judging panel, our dilemma was: do you reward a struggling paper such as the Independent for a brilliant initiative, or plump for consistently excellent journalism?
On 16 March, the British Press Awards made the Independent National Newspaper of the Year. This under-resourced, understaffed, yet inspired newspaper saw off five other finalists, the Mail on Sunday, the Daily Mirror, the Observer, the Sunday Times and the Daily Mail.
The choice between the Independent's new compact and the other titles highlighted the dilemma faced by the judges - including me. Do you reward a struggling newspaper for a brilliant initiative that secures its lifeline, or do you reward consistently excellent journalism? It's a bit like trying to compare a passionate affair with a long-term relationship.
I have a soft spot for the Indy and real admiration for what it achieves on such scant resources under Simon Kelner's editorship. Yet I guess I'm just old-fashioned at heart and can't help but think we as an industry do not fully reward consistently great journalism. We've rather come to take for granted papers such as the Sunday Times, the Mail, the Guardian, the Observer, the Mail on Sunday - and that's arrogance.
In the end, almost everyone would rather have lost to the Independent than anyone else. It's a paper admired by most people in the industry, for good reason.
Compering the Press Awards evening is every after-dinner speaker's nightmare. Clive Anderson struggled valiantly last year but was unable to tame the crowd. Alastair Campbell was invited to host the event but sensibly replied, "You must be fucking joking." In the end Michael Buerk was a perfect foil for the boisterous audience: he was funny and fast, just what we needed. It was the best-natured awards evening I can remember.
Team of the Year went to the Telegraph for its war coverage, Supplement of the Year to the Financial Times for How To Spend It, Front Cover to the News of the World's "Huntley in his cell" and Scoop of the Year to the Mirror's Ryan Parry, for his intrusion into the Queen's breakfast-table Tupperware.
The surprise of the evening was the award of Columnist of the Year to Boris Johnson of the Telegraph. No surprise that he won, just that he failed to turn up and didn't have the grace to explain his absence. Bad form, Boris, even for a Tory.
The retirement of Charles Reiss as political editor of the Standard has prompted a collective shiver amid the cubbyholes of the Westminster lobby. Most of the political editors are now of a certain age, late fifties to early sixties, the age when their editors start thinking of their successors. And the minute an editor starts thinking of a successor . . . Well, we need look no further than the premature ousting of the BBC's pol ed Robin Oakley for the relatively youthful and undoubtedly talented Andrew Marr. ITN's replacement of Michael Brunson with Nick Robinson followed shortly afterwards. And the more likely a spring 2005 election looks, the more the editors begin to think about whether or not they have the right man - and they usually are men - for the job.
The Sun's Trevor Kavanagh, the Telegraph's George Jones, the Times's Philip Webster, the Guardian's Michael White are all gentlemen of a certain age. The only pol ed of this set who can feel completely safe in his seat is the formidable and untouchable Kavanagh.
And with people like Cathy Newman, Ben Brogan, Kevin Maguire, Patrick Wintour, Toby Helm, Oonagh Blackman, Paul Eastham, George Pascoe-Watson and the trouble-making Simon Walters snapping at their heels, who could feel safe? Meanwhile Patrick Hennessy, an Old Etonian, leaves the Standard to become political editor of the Sunday Telegraph, recently and surprisingly vacated by Colin Brown, who returns to the Independent as deputy to (the youthful) Andy Grice. What's that all about, then?
From No 10 to Channel 5 might be seen as a comedown by some, but not Alastair Campbell. He is to have his own chat show on Five. "I have had approaches from a number of broadcasters and production companies and I like Five's unstuffy approach," he says. No fee was mentioned, which is always a bad sign.
It is an unsurprising move for Five which, despite its excellent news coverage, seems to specialise these days in experimental TV shows that last one series and then bite the dust. Yet I was impressed by Ali's implication that he went for the buzz, not the bucks. I look forward to hearing he has turned down the £1m-plus book deal with a major publisher for his memoirs in favour of a little outfit with less cash, but an unstuffy attitude.
The talented Ann Treneman has been anointed as the Times parliamentary sketch-writer. She is one of few women ever to hold this position, her sex giving her the advantage of being able to view the pomposity of what she surveys with great astuteness and some affection - as she does brilliantly.
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