Three of our biggest regional chains – Johnston, Newsquest, Local World – get together to “take on Google” by creating a giant digital ad site they can all share. We shall see. The other big chain – Trinity Mirror – won’t play that game, “streamlines” management and axes some of the titles it bought from the Guardian a few years ago in lush Surrey and Berkshire. Print out, websites in, redundancies up. Not much to see there.
Meanwhile, whatever became of the local wizard who made the Surrey Advertiser series so successful? Ah! Here’s Sir Ray Tindle and his 220 titles again. All staff got a £500 pay rise this year. All staff will get a Christmas bonus of up to £400 on top. No great riches, to be sure. But no long, cold voyage into cyberspace either.
■ John Samuel, sports editor of the Observer and then the Guardian for 18 years, died last week. He was 86; it’s 28 years since he produced his last page. So why the respect and sadness right round Fleet Street? Because of the writers he signed/discovered/nurtured – with Neville Cardus, John Arlott, Matthew Engel, Frank Keating, Pat Ward-Thomas, John Rodda, Mike Selvey, Richard Baerlein, David Lacey and David Gray among the first team squad. Editing is like football managing. You’re as good as the players you sign. Which is why John Samuel was very good indeed.
