The Daily Novel

Even while I was writing my last blog, asking whether all British newspapers were now tabloid, the arch-fiend Rupert Murdoch, by far the most powerful British media owner and possibly now the most influential in the world, was plotting the next phase for his own empire. He has bumped up his own second son, James, 34, to be boss of his European and Asian businesses, making it highly likely that he will take over when Rupert, now well into his seventies, joins the ultimate boss in the sky, with whom, apparently, he is already on good terms. At the same time he has brought in a new editor of The Times, James Harding, 36.

So what does all this mean for the British press? It is easy to argue that Murdoch has been the dominant force in the tabloidisation of the British press. Certainly it is he who has made The Times so different from the paper I worked for in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which was edited by the high-minded patrician, William Rees Mogg, and owned by the Canadian Lord Thomson, who venerated British traditions, loved to be a Lord, and believed in leaving his editors alone to decide editorial policy and conduct the day to day running of his papers.  

Murdoch, from his first week as boss, showed he would be a hands-one proprietor, visiting the newsroom when the deadline approached and making cogent criticisms of the following day’s newspaper. He managed to become the scourge of the British left and attract the hostility of the British establishment, thanks to his anti-monarchy stance. He has used his financial power to weaken the competition, cutting the price of The Times, and threatening the survival of the other broadsheets, particularly The Independent. The Independent fought back, trying to beat Murdoch in the chase for new readers, by being the first broadsheet to go tabloid in shape.

They gained readers initially but their advantage was soon vanished, because Murdoch, a few weeks later, managed to compress the vast Times into the tabloid shape. In terms of content The Times, in its front page news priorities, began to look more like The Sun. They tended to lead on stories like the back from the dead canoeist, John Darwin, as they did a few days ago.

But if you think you are about to read another rant about the decline of the British serious press, you will be wrong. It is easy to lambast Murdoch for the zeal he shows in pressing his own beliefs, to which I should now add his anti-European convictions on top of those mentioned above. But to do so would be a gross under-estimation of the man. And it would not take account of the changes in Murdoch himself. He is no longer the brash young Australian who shocked the then-editor of the News of the World, by grabbing his paper which was ‘as British as roast beef’.

He has accumulated a huge understanding of both the newspaper and the television business not only in Britain but in the United States and the Far East. He has shown several times a capacity to learn from his mistakes, notably in making up by his initial disdain for the internet, but pouring money into Times Online. He has been extremely skilful in managing his relations with politicians. Prime ministers alter their diaries to meet him when he telephones.

The clue to the latest Murdoch changes is that they reflect a global strategy and when you examine there is very strong evidence that Murdoch, far from encouraging further tabloidisation, has demonstrated that serious news is now his main priority.

The latest changes are driven by Murdoch’s concern to make a success of his latest coup, which is his acquisition of the Wall St Journal, against the fierce opposition of the ruling family and many other Americans. He is changing the editor of the London Times because he needs its present editor, Robert Thomson, to spearhead the editorial thrust of his latest acquisition. Not because Thomson is a fellow Australian, but because his professional experience has mostly been with The Financial Times, and because he knows New York well thanks to his spell as the FT’s American editor.

The US has no national newspapers and the Wall St Journal was in fact the first US newspaper to make a bid for national coverage by establishing printing plants in several parts of the country. But the Journal has been far less successful than the FT in establishing its influence beyond the business world. It has nothing like the same quality in terms of political and arts coverage, which has made the FT must reading for highly influential readers not primarily interested in the stock markets. So in the US Murdoch will be challenging the New York Times and the Washington Post, which although their circulations are dominantly in New York and Washington have the most national and international influence in the American press. (Their only serious competitor is Time Magazine, which arguably is much less influential than it was. Although it has a much bigger national circulation both the New York Times and the Washington Post are able to reach many more millions via their web sites.)

Thomson is the sixth editor of The Times during Murdoch’s ownership and his priorities have always been serious news. In retrospect I paid too much attention in my tabloidisation blog to the canoeist lead. The Times still devotes most of its coverage to serious matters. And my guess is that it will continue doing after Thomson leaves for New York in early January. (When Murdoch acts he acts quickly!).

The new editor, like Thomson, has had most of his professional experience on the Financial Times. James Harding’s experience has all been as a business journalist. This is a disadvantage in the view of many journalists, who still believe that to learn the trade properly you need to start with local papers and do your apprenticeship following the mayor and covering weddings and funerals, and making your mark later in the parliamentary lobby.

Murdoch has long since realised that business corporations are quite as important as countries in the world we live today. And that journalists schooled in the business specialism acquire an understanding and vast contact book that is far more useful to them in national and international journalism than what can be learnt in those years in Wolverhampton or Darlington.

It is no accident that The Daily Telegraph, the main competitor of The Times, is also edited by a business journalist, Will Lewis. Lewis first made his mark by doing business stories for the Mail on Sunday. But the bulk of his experience was at the Financial Times, where, reportedly he became a firm friend of Harding’s.

I should not end this blog without a declaration of interest. Both Harding and Lewis did the City University post-graduate course in journalism when I was in there every day. And I myself began my career as a business journalist. And I even retain a soft spot for Rupert Murdoch, although I disagree with most of his opinions, simply because he granted me an exclusive interview when I was working for The Times, which gave me a decent scoop to further my journalistic career.