This month’s Press Gazette contains a list of the UK’s top 50 comment journalists, rated by the public and a sample of comment journalists.
The top ten is as follows:
1. Matthew Parris, Times
2. Simon Jenkins, Evening Standard, Guardian
3. Jeremy Clarkson, Sunday Times, Sun
4. Quentin Letts, Daily Mail
5. Polly Toynbee, Guardian
6. Richard Littlejohn, Daily Mail
7. Charlie Brooker, Guardian
8. Rachel Sylvester, Times
9. Janice Turner, Times
10. Rod Liddle, Sunday Times
What really jumps out about this list is that they’re all print journalists, even though both sets of respondents were allowed to name bloggers. In fact, 38.1 per cent of those surveyed (the biggest proportion) said that they preferred reading comment pieces in print.
This is reflected across the whole top 50 — the only blogger who made it on to the list was Stephen Fry (at number 42), mainly from the public vote.
Jeremy Clarkson was also included by virtue of the popular vote. He was the public’s favourite commentator, but received no votes from the panel of journalists. The controversial Clarkson is an increasingly influential media player, ranking 74 on the Guardian’s list of top 100 media figures in 2007.
A survey last November by Continental Research suggested his Sun column was the one that consumers would be most willing to pay to read online.
The public’s top two were Clarkson and Richard Littlejohn, showing that their taste diverges somewhat from the reasoned comment favoured by the panel of journalists (their top two were Simon Jenkins and Matthew Parris). Perhaps there are lessons to be learned there.
Finally, some shameless self-promotion. Two New Statesman columnists also made it on to on the list — Steve Richards (31) and Peter Wilby (44).
Press Gazette is owned by Progressive Media, which also owns the New Statesman.
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