Anyone fancy a try at being Mirror editor?

Published on Thursday 10 June 2004 01:37

IT IS almost four weeks since Piers Morgan was unceremoniously fired as editor of the Daily Mirror for publishing fake pictures of British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners - and still no puff of white smoke from Trinity Mirror’s Canary Wharf HQ naming his successor. Nor is there likely to be any this week: chief executive Sly Bailey, who is in charge of the convoluted selection process, is on holiday.

Some might conclude that choosing a new editor should take priority over a vacation, but Bailey has been nothing if not exhaustive: I’m told that no fewer than 11 internal candidates have been interviewed (as well as several external ones), which suggests that even the guy who cleans the executive loos could be in with a chance.

Acting editor Des Kelly, Morgan’s deputy, is among those who have been grilled by Bailey and her team for the top job; but since he was passed over as editor of Trinity Mirror’s ailing Sunday People, even he does not rate his chances highly. The internal favourite is Phil Hall, the Mirror Group’s editorial director; but he left the editor’s chair of the News of the World under a cloud.

The present editor of the News of the World, Andy Coulson, is regarded by many as the best external candidate and News International would not want to lose him. It is not known, however, if Coulson has even applied - or would accept if offered the job.

The scale of the task for whoever is eventually appointed will be shown by the May ABCs, out later this week. Trade estimates I have seen suggest Mirror sales fell yet again last month to under 1.85 million - 40,000 down on April and 120,000 fewer than May last year. Morgan’s critics will say his fake pictures are taking the toll they deserved; but the Mirror’s problems are deeper than that.

The point of the Mirror - once Britain’s biggest-selling daily newspaper - is no longer clear and Trinity Mirror seems at a loss as to how to create a distinctive brand. The Saturday Mirror alone has declined in only a year from 3 million to 2.2 million as good parts of the package were killed off to create an unexceptional TV magazine.

Bailey’s background is in marketing, yet a distinctive marketing strategy has yet to emerge for the Mirror under her watch. The 3am magazine has no clear purpose and appeals to a different sort of reader than the paper’s successful 3am page, which confuses the brand image.

The Mirror seems incapable of successfully and consistently producing the Sun’s successful mix of news and celebrity, but even if it could, it might still be in trouble - the paper’s huge north of England readership has different sensibilities from the Sun.

Last week I wrote that Trinity had hired headhunters to find Morgan’s successor. I am assured this is not the case. But criticisms of the lengthy selection process are legion. "The handling of the appointment of a new editor is a ridiculous, unbelievable situation," says one disillusioned senior executive. "Editors, deputies and Uncle Tom Cobleighs are trooping in for interviews, while the paper is left on autopilot."

The consequences of that are clear to see: the paper is no longer known for a distinctive political line and some days it looks as if it is merely chasing the Star downmarket. On other days, it thinks it’s the Guardian: the D-Day coverage included a headline in French!

In many ways it is already missing Morgan because, as my Mirror mole puts it, "he was the Sun King and, for better or worse, it all revolved round him". As a result, the paper’s cadre of senior editorial executives was run down under Morgan. This is a newspaper which once boasted Kelvin Mackenzie, David Montgomery and Charlie Wilson. There are no senior staff of equivalent weight today.

Yet, for all that, and the continuing collapse in sales of the Mirror’s two Sunday red-top sisters, Trinity shares continue to rise. They have even risen 50p since Morgan’s departure. Does the City know something we don’t? "The markets smell a sell-off of Trinity’s national titles," says my media man in the Square Mile. It’s been predicted (wrongly) before. Maybe this time it’s right.

Lights, camera - but where is the prime-time action, ITV?

AS a modern-minded sort of chap I prefer action drama to costume drama, but ITV, which as a mass channel should excel at contemporary action series, seems to have lost the knack of making them. Monday’s Line in the Sand, starring Ross Kemp, started with a healthy six million viewers but ended with only four million.

I’m not surprised: the show was as lacklustre as Kemp’s previous action series, Ultimate Force, which also failed to set the ratings alight. The speculation is that Kemp’s 1.5 million-a-year-contract with ITV is unlikely to be renewed.

But I’m not sure the former EastEnders star is to blame. The real problem seems to be ITV’s inability to make contemporary action series with the style and atmosphere of the BBC’s Spooks. Until it re-learns that, it cannot hope to dominate the prime-time ratings.

Voters lose Polly's support

POLLY Toynbee, high priestess of the liberal-Left chattering classes, went out campaigning with Jack Straw last week, actually met some voters - and didn’t like what she saw.

In an amazingly de haut en bas column in last Friday’s Guardian entitled "Voting’s too good for ’em", she accused the masses of "sheer pig-headed ignorance, nastiness, mean-spiritedness and rudeness" - largely because they did not share her progressive view of the world.

Her article was a sympathetic lament for the poor politicians who have to deal with such ghastly voters.

I wondered, for a moment, if it was all tongue in cheek. Then I remembered the ironic words of that even more famous Leftie, Bertolt Brecht, when the ungrateful plebs of East Germany rose against their Communist masters in 1953: "Would it not be easier, for the Government/To deselect the People, and elect a replacement?"

But the irony might be lost on Polly.

Thompson'ssigning puts one over on his FT rival

TIMES editor Robert Thompson has two reasons to celebrate his successful luring of respected Financial Times US columnist Gerard Baker to his paper.

Not only is Times proprietor Rupert Murdoch a Baker fan (Murdoch likes his robustly pro-American views) but his defection represents a small victory for Thompson in his long- running tussle with FT editor Andrew Gowers.

Like most Fleet Street feuds, the origins of this one are unclear - probably something to do with Thompson’s ambition to be FT editor being thwarted when Gowers was chosen - but I’m told the personal rivalry between them remains intense.

In the Battle for Baker’s Column, Thompson was helped by the fact that the FT’s bloated American operation (which Thompson used to run) is a pretty unhappy ship.

The Times editor has a third reason to celebrate: trade estimates suggest his paper’s May ABC will be just over 650,000 - 2 per cent up on last May. Maybe his uncertain tabloid strategy is coming right after all.

Indy chief well worth his 100% rise

I AM still at odds (see this page two weeks ago) with Independent publisher Ivan Fallon over how much his tabloid strategy has cost the paper in lost display advertising revenues. I say quite a lot, he says none, but I do not grudge him a penny of the recent doubling of his total remuneration (to a hefty 627,000).

Going tabloid was a brave, risky decision but it has put rocket fuel into the sales and readership of the Independent after years of decline and he deserves to be generously rewarded.

The setback to display revenues will, I’m sure, prove to be temporary (a bigger worry is that the ABC seems to have stalled recently at just over 260,000, but it is still 18 per cent up year-on-year).

As a former journalist himself - he was my distinguished deputy at the Sunday Times - I’m sure he’s made certain that Indy editor Simon Kelner is also sharing in the success.

TIPPED BY GLOVER - YET STILL IN RACE

A FRISSON of fear must have gone through the Barclay brothers last week when the media savant of Oxford, Stephen Glover, named them in the Spectator as favourites to win the bidding war for the Telegraph.

"They’re stuffed now," another media commentator emailed me, in what I hoped was a jocular fashion. But I know what he meant. The week before, Mr Glover had named Axel Springer as the favourite - when everybody knew it was out of the race.

So nobody was surprised when, 24 hours after the Speccie’s media sage had conferred front-runner status on my proprietors, other media commentators had concluded that the favourite was actually Associated Newspapers. They must be relieved Mr G does not concur!