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June 12, 2003updated 22 Nov 2022 1:14pm

Back Issues 12.06.03

By Press Gazette

Miller makes his move

Robin Miller, sporting long hair, a fringe and sideburns, was featured in Press Gazette’s changing faces column. The former editor of Motor Cycle News had been made divisional editorial manager of the periodicals division of East Midland Allied Press. He went on to head the company and turned it into one of the biggest publishers in the UK.

Boy, Boy, crazy boy

A 42-year-old former messenger with the Scottish Sunday Express in Glasgow was fined £20 for assaulting editor Archibald Freedman. The Central Police Court heard that the messenger, George Morton, objected to being called “boy” while being reprimanded by the deputy editor. He started shouting and swearing and kicked and butted Freedman when he tried to intervene. The court was told that “boy” was used frequently in journalism and senior men were free to use it in addressing “reasonable married men with families”.

Writers get it wrong

Fleet Street’s finest sports reporters were pictured on the front of Press Gazette as they lined up against an Italian press eleven in Turin. Our boys went down 4-0 despite fielding former England captain Billy Wright. According to Dog, the Italian press took the game more seriously and fielded several former Juventus players. The English team manager, Alan Hubbard, editor of Sportsworld magazine, resigned during the match after his team’s poor showing in the first half. Amazingly, the game drew a crowd of 5,000. The team included Peter Jones, of the BBC; Bob Harris, Thomson’s Newspapers; Peter Corrigan, The Observer; Brian Glanville, The Sunday Times; Jeff Powell, Daily Mail; Nigel Clarke and Monte Fresco, both Daily Mirror and Ken Jones, then with the Sunday Mirror. Frank Clough of The Sun failed a late fitness test and Frank McGhee of the Daily Mirror was billed as “technical adviser”. They were in Turin to see England lose 2-0 to Juventus.

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What a woman!

Film star Sophia Loren was pictured reading the Telford Journal, while on a visit to the West Midland Safari Park. Journal chief reporter Bob Williams was showing Loren the paper’s story about a local woman who had used the actress as a model for a painting of the Madonna.

The Sun presses ahead

Average daily sales of The Sun were in excess of three million, News International chairman Rupert Murdoch reported to the annual general meeting. He added the tempo of activity in Bouverie Street had put such pressure on existing facilities that more presses were being ordered.

Record on top

The Daily Record had overtaken the Scottish Daily Express for the first time, according to provisional figures. The Record’s sales were put at 577,565 against the Express’s 575,717

Gazette hacked off

The nationals were taken to task by the Hackney Gazette for portraying a fight between black and white girls outside a school as a “race riot”. It reported that two black girls were treated in hospital after being cut with broken glass. Their head teacher said the fight was about pop stars and there was no racial motive. Some nationals had reported that 60 girls were involved in a race riot with razor blades and studded shoes. There were claims that the girls had been stabbed. But Tom Welsh, then senior press officer for the Inner London Education Authority, said: “I was astonished at the stories. We believe four or five girls were involved.” Welsh, now editor of Media Lawyer, said he accepted arguments put by correspondents to Press Gazette “that there is a case for playing down incidents where colour is concerned on the grounds that in such incidents news coverage actually becomes part of the ‘event'”.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

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