MEDIA STUDIES
Is a marketing man the right man for the Express?
Perhaps the thing to do is to put it on the market
STEPHEN GLOVER
What would you do if you owned the Dail), and Sunday Express? I say `owned' not edited. The circulation of both titles falls month by month, as it has done steadily for 30 years. In May each paper recorded anoth- er post-war low, and I expect that when we know the official sales figures for June in a few days' time we may fmd they are even lower. Profits are slipping, though for a time they were held up by persistent cost-cutting. There is now little left to cut, and if circula- tion continues to fall profits will follow.
In these circumstances the obvious thing to do is to sack the editor. That is not an option. New editors took over at both newspapers only six months ago. Naturally, opinion is divided as to whether Richard Addis at the Daily Express and Sue Douglas at the Sunday Express are making a success of things, but they seem to have the confi- dence of their employers — perhaps Mr Addis especially so. He has brightened the paper, moved it fractionally up-market, expanded the letters page, introduced new columnists, including a former editor of this magazine, and revived `Beachcomber, which, after a dicey start, is becoming delightfully dotty. The Express gets occa- sional scoops, such as its recent revelation concerning Martin Amis's mislaid daugh- ter. One may doubt the genuineness of the paper's Euroscepticism now that it has decided to wrap itself in the flag. But all in all I doubt whether Mr Addis could have done much better.
Miss Douglas inherited a paper in worse shape than its daily stablemate. During the 15-month editorship of Brian Hitchen, the Sunday Express had lurched back to the 1950s in an attempt to boost the flagging interest of its elderly readers. Mr Hitchen, a rather admirable character, liked stories about military cutbacks, horrible rapes, cor- ruption in Africa, layabouts sponging off the state — set off by sentimental pieces about old soldiers who had fought for a finer Britain and the occasional photograph of a pretty girl. He actually renamed his supple- ment Classic. Alas, these stratagems did not work. Sales continued to decline. Miss Dou- glas has done a dramatic U-turn, and made a beeline for younger readers. She has hired the columnist Julie Burchill, expanded for- eign coverage, run gritty investigations and adopted a political stance calculated not to offend the young. On 21 April the slightly shocking front-page headline was `A Bunch of Shits' — allegedly John Major's view of his fellow European leaders. Middle Eng- land quivered. I quivered.
I could criticise Miss Douglas, but I'm not going to. She has lots of chutzpah. Per- haps she has been a bit cavalier with the sensibilities of the Sunday Express's older readers, and this may partly explain why her paper has experienced a slightly sharp- er fall in circulation than Mr Addis's since the beginning of the year. But both titles are more or less equally on the skids, and one can't help feeling that they would be almost regardless of what these two new editors had done, or anyone else in their place. How do you convince a world which no longer cares that your newspaper has improved? Both editors must hope that word of mouth — being favourably talked about — will sooner or later lift their for- tunes. I'm quite sure that neither of them expected a quick turnaround, and I wouldn't be surprised if they sometimes wonder in their hearts whether there will be a turnaround at all.
Editors alone, however gifted, can't save newspapers. They can revive them, and they can certainly make them, as Arthur Christiansen helped to make the Daily Express. But they can't rescue them single- handedly. For that some great publisher or proprietor is also needed. The Express titles do not have such a figure. They are dislo- cated from their glorious past; apart from one or two crusty subeditors or copytakers, there can't be anyone working there who remembers Lord Beaverbrook or under- stands what his papers stood for. Successful papers are aware of their traditions, but somehow the traditions of these once formidable titles have been forgotten.
The men who run United News and Media, the company which owns the Express titles, are Lord Stevens, chairman, and Lord Hollick, chief executive. Lord Stevens, a man of right-wing inclinations, has been on the scene for over ten years, during which time the circulation of both newspapers has continued to fall. Lord Hollick, a Labour supporter, joined the show some four months ago after MAI, a
'I can't stand football, he can't stand tennis.. .
media conglomerate which he ran, merged with United. Their lordships, each of whom has only a tiny shareholding, know a good deal about money. But Lord Stevens has demonstrated that he doesn't know how to save the Express titles, and I am pretty sure Lord Hollick hasn't much of a:clue. He has no political sympathy for them. He has never run a newspaper, and seems to know surprisingly little about publishing. Like everyone else, he wants to build up a media empire (United is already capitalised at over £3 billion), and it is generally sup- posed that at some point Lord Stevens, a much older man, will be gently invited by Lord Hollick to retire.
At Lord Hollick's instigation, several old executive lags have been sent packing, and the youthful Stephen Grabiner, formerly managing director of The Telegraph plc, which owns The Spectator, has been hired as group managing director. Mr Grabiner is incontrovertibly an able manager, who played his part in the financial recovery of the Telegraph. One of his first acts at the Express has been to close down the bar in the newspapers' offices on Blackfriars bridge. This has upset a lot of hacks. Mr Grabiner is a marketing man and, indis- pensable though his skills are, they hardly seem central to the matter in hand. The Express titles certainly need to be better marketed but they first need to rediscover a raison d'être. They must have much greater investment if they are not to be continually outspent by their Mail counterparts. Their editors, if they are the right ones, will require the unswerving loyalty and faith of the management. The management will have to have the patience of Job.
Any of these gentlemen might be per- fectly good at running a successful newspa- per group. Is it really likely they will preside over the recovery of these titles? There are rumours that Lord Hollick — who is calling the shots more than Lord Stevens — may not be opposed to a sale. But a newspaper, even a failing one, is a difficult thing to give up, and my guess is that Lords Hollick and Stevens have not yet attuned themselves to the idea. Their problem is that they haven't got much time. Their assets are wasting almost by the day. There are still parties prepared to pay good money for the papers, and one or two new ones are stir- ring in the undergrowth. The question is whether the Express management is clever enough to get rid of them in time.
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