Richard Ingrams, founder and editor of The Oldie, has resigned. Photo: Getty
Richard Ingrams, 76, who edited Private Eye for over 20 years, has stood down as editor of The Oldie. He co-founded the magazine for the over-60s, which was established to “produce an antidote to youth culture”, in 1992.
Ironically, his reason for resigning is because he considers himself “too old”. To attend disciplinary meetings, that is. Ingrams has been in a long-running dispute with the magazine’s publisher, James Pembroke, whom he describes as “impossible to work with”.
Ingrams, who acknowledged that this story is something he’d once have relished at Private Eye, commented:
I had had a long-running dispute with him [Pembroke] about various things, culminating in his summoning me to this disciplinary hearing and saying if I was found guilty of misconduct I would be give a final written warning – in other words, threatened with the sack, really. I was hoping that we could discuss this yesterday [Thursday], but it transpired that Pembroke was determined to have this disciplinary hearing on Monday regardless. I was put in an impossible position, really.
The dispute involves a recent dip in the magazine’s sales, as well as disagreements over its front covers.
Here is a testimonial about The Oldie, from one of its better-known readers, Joan Bakewell:
Their trick is to make all this grumbling seem such fun.
But among its managers, it seems the fun has given way just to grumbling…
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