I blinked. Surely The Sun and the News of the World are not really going to merge? But Stephen Brook reports that News International's managing director, Clive Milner, has raised the possibility of what he calls the achievement of "operational efficiencies", which certainly sounds like a euphemism for some kind of seven-day working for some staff, probably in production.
He is said to have discussed his proposals with the editors and managing editors of The Sun and the News of the World and I can well imagine that his ideas got anything but a warm welcome. When will non-editorial managers understand that journalists work best when they identify with a single title? Not to mention the fact that they tend to compete as fiercely with each other as they do their Fleet Street rivals.
Every previous attempt to merge daily and Sunday papers has failed. Sure, some staff foreign correspondents can write for both. Some downtable subs can work across both (as they have done for 40 years and more). But trying to develop any form of seven-day working with reporters, newsdesk executives and senior production staff does not work. Editors know that, of course.
It is significant that Milner, who is generally well-respected in his management role, comes from a non-journalistic background. He has been with News International since Rupert Murdoch bought The Times in 1981. He started off as an advertising executive, later becoming commercial director of the News of the World and managing director of Times Newspapers before, five years ago, rising to his current post.
I'm sure he is good at his job. I'm sure, as my Wapping friends tell me, is a nice, thoughtful chap. But he is on the wrong path if he thinks it will help either The Sun or News of the World to save a few pounds by merging all but the subbing of the "furniture".
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