Brooks pulls no punches

Tim Brooks, the managing director of Monkey's lords and masters, Guardian News & Media, has given a fruity interview to MediaWeek. Brooks, who founded the magazine and was its inaugural editor back in the day, is also now chair of the Newspaper Publishers Association - but didn't pull any punches on the state of the industry. "If I had a pound for every title that will close in 2009, I'd have enough money to subscribe to both Monocle and Intelligent Life - but that would be pointless, because neither of them will be around by the end of the year." Take that, Tyler Brûlé and the Economist, respective backers of the glossy magazines. Brooks refused to rule out job cuts or cover price rises at GNM, but did say "making editorial cuts is literally the last thing we would do". But Monkey was drawn to his take on GNM's rival Independent News & Media moving into the headquarters of Associated Newspapers. "You know those Hammer Horror moves where you get travellers being pursued by wolves through a dark wood and they come across a castle and the door is answered by Count Dracula? That's what I think about the Independent - it is in the castle of Count Dracula."