Piers Morgan has called for more sponsorship for his popular, if controversial Mail Online columns as he predicted huge consolidation in the UK newspaper industry.
The call came during a wide-ranging interview with WPP boss, Sir Martin Sorrell, at the Cannes advertising festival, in which the former Daily Mirror editor also said that Rupert Murdoch dictated political views to the Sun but not his other papers, which include the Times.
Rupert "only tells the Sun what to do" says @piersmorgan.@tonygallagher won't like that
— jane martinson (@janemartinson) June 20, 2016
Morgan, editor-at-large of the Mail Online, made a “plea” for more sponsorship and advertising deals for his columns, some of which attract 2m page views, he said.
“I’d love to have someone come and say ‘I would love to do something fun with these columns’,” he told an event at the Cannes lions advertising festival.
Some of Morgan’s columns – which have tackled controversial topics such as US gun control as well as his spats with celebrities such as Kim Kardashian – already attract sponsorship.
Speaking of the troubled state of the UK newspaper industry, Morgan predicted only a handful would survive, including, unsurprisingly, the Mail.
“Within 20 years there won’t be print newspapers,” he told an audience which included his two editors, Martin Clarke of Mail Online and the Mail on Sunday’s Geordie Greig.
The Mail’s advertising-funded online model was the right one, he said, pointing out that the Sun had recently scrapped its paywall. He compared newspapers to rival coffee shops saying “everyone is going to go to the one giving it away for free”.
Discussing the Mail on Sunday’s decision to come out in support of remaining in the EU, Sorrell, one of the ad industry’s most influential executives, asked whether this showed that the power of Daily Mail editor, Paul Dacre, was waning.
“Both the Mail and the Times titles disagreeing, that’s a massively positive thing!” said Morgan.
Asked what Dacre, who is also editor-in-chief of the Mail titles, was like to work for, Greig raised a smile by saying that he worked for Lord Rothermere, the owner of Mail parent company DMGT. He added “and Paul Dacre”, although few in the audience heard him. He described the success and continued influence of both titles as “a miracle going against gravity”.
Morgan also talked of his rapprochement with Jeremy Clarkson, who had texted 18 months ago during a difficult period to say “Morgan, we have got to stop this nonsense. Drink?”
Clarkson drank rosé but Morgan drank the “more manly ... pints of foaming ale”.
