When the Barclay brothers bought the European five years ago, there
were those who saw this as confirmation that the twins had more money
than sense. The European, regarded by many as one of Robert Maxwell’s
more extreme acts of megalomania, was surely a lost cause - and a
potentially expensive lost cause at that.
But everyone knew that the Barclays were eccentric - they had, for
instance, bought a lump of rock in the sea near Guernsey, fortified it
and announced what amounted to a unilateral declaration of
independence.
Last week, the Barclays bought Sunday Business, the ill-starred
newspaper launched last year by Tom Rubython. It had staggered from
crisis to crisis, ending up in receivership. The Barclays picked it up
for a nominal sum.
Andrew Neil, editor-in-chief of their media company, European Press, is
seeking a new editor and a relaunch is planned for November.
Neil will know the size of the task he’s taking on. As editor of the
Sunday Times during the 80s, he maintained the paper’s dominance at the
quality end of the Sunday market - and one of its strongest selling
points was the ’must read’ business section.
Surely it has acquired an awesome momentum, a momentum that a dull but
worthy business-only title can’t hope to derail. And all the broadsheets
have pretty decent business sections these days. Neil doesn’t rate them
very highly: ’We’re not exactly in the heyday of Sunday business
journalism,’ he growled last week.
Is he right? Steve Goodman, the head of press at the Media Business,
says it’s possible - but he says Sunday Business has a mountain to
climb. ’It hasn’t made the best of its strengths - but I’m not sure
that’s possible in its present format. I don’t think it’s a good idea
for it to be positioned as a newspaper - it means all sorts of
expectations, such as size of circulation, that it can’t meet. There’s a
place for it as a magazine.’
That doesn’t appear to be an option under consideration. But the
original concept still has some fans - like Paul Mukherjee, press buying
director at the Network. ’I’ve always thought that you’d have to be a
fool to fail with Sunday Business,’ he confesses. ’I think the equation
is pretty straightforward. Chairmen and chief executives have to read
everything. For every one of them there are at least ten people below
them who read the same things. There are upwards of 400,000 serious
business people in the UK and a huge percentage of them are in London
and the South-east. You have to get the thing into their hands. You have
to put the resource behind it to make it credible but the Barclays have
that resource. As for getting it into people’s hands, they could look at
what the Telegraph has been doing with subscription offers.’
Sounds simple. Is it beyond the capacities of the Barclays? There has
been speculation that they will also bid for Newspaper Publishing, the
publisher of the Independent and Independent on Sunday. Doesn’t this
confirm their reputation for quixotic behaviour?
Mukherjee believes not. And he is not alone in taking issue with that
view. Any company that hires the services of Bert Hardy must have
something going for it. Hardy is now the chief executive of European
Press. Under Hardy, the European has become a tabloid and is looking
healthier than before. The company’s acquisition of the Scotsman and its
sister publications was deemed a good move.
Mukherjee adds: ’They are keen on newspaper publishing, which is
refreshing these days. And the company is building a solid group of
titles that can share resources. They could have as much chance as
anyone of making the Independent work. People are realising that the
Barclay brothers have a pretty canny operation.’
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