Low pejoration
Sir: In his article 'Running a red rag' (The press, 16 August), Paul Johnson likes our intention at News on Sunday to give readers a 'genuine right of reply'. I hope you do at the Spectator and will give this equal prominence.
For the first part of his piece Mr Johnson is full of praise for our decision to go only for a Sunday title. He approves of the price range we are aiming at, and he is com- plimentary of our decision to print with the Telegraph. Mr Johnson also feels that a successful paper with a left of centre viewpoint, operating from Manchester, would be a substantial and welcome bridge across the yawning North-South divide. So far, so good.
After this we get the benefit of Mr Johnson's awesome business experience. He begins by deliberately denigrating the standing and reputation of the Board by describing each one in a misleading and inaccurate manner.
I am supposed to 'run a north of England dairy company'. For 16 years now I have been chairman of a multi-million-pound company. Last year the turnover of my company was over 11/2 billion pounds, and we employ nearly 30,000 people. A lot of people to fit in a dairy in, say, Halifax!
John Pilger is described as a `left-wing journalist'. Pilger was the leading inves- tigative journalist on the Mirror for over 20 years. He has twice won the 'Journalist of the Year' award. Verity Lambert is de- scribed as a 'film director'. Lambert has a long record of many successful productions for both television and the cinema. Many of her successes like Minder have become cult pieces.
After attempting to destroy the credibil- ity of the Board, Johnson draws on all his knowledge of industrial relations to damn our arrangements with the print unions. He ridicules the arrangements- we have made for direct entry with the unions. Mr Johnson totally ignores that we are the first national paper to have made an arrange- ment of this nature. News on Sunday has the total support of all the print unions. Some of them have put money into the venture, and at the moment the formative staff of the paper are sharing the office with Sogat. If ever there is a venture which is going to succeed with union support, it is this.
When Mr Johnson starts writing about the 'management style' we are trying to adopt, his pejoration reaches the lowest limits. I have had nearly 30 years in business management and know a little about the committee/autocracy divide! At News on Sunday we shall have an informal and largely unstructured management style. We shall consult, and we shall co-operate. We shall have blurred lines of demarcation.
True, the founders have some powers to preserve the integrity and independence of the paper. The board of directors will help them. True, there will be worker directors. True, there will be a genuine equal oppor- tunities strategy. All of these factors will help this to be a unique and outstanding success. We expect to be selling between 40 and 50 times as many copies a week as the Spectator this time next year.
Nicholas Horsley
Chairman, News on Sunday, 13-16 Borough Road, London SE1
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