News that Trinity Mirror may buy the Express group of newspapers from Richard ‘banana on a silver tray’ Desmond has been welcomed by many. But we should be careful what we wish for.
It would, of course, mean more centralisation of titles, something most are against when Murdoch or Rothermere do it but, I suspect, less so when it is the Mirror.
If all titles survive, then it would mean – in England at least – the Mirror would own two of the three main redtop dailies, three of the four redtop Sundays, one of the two midmarket tabloids but none of the current crop of broadsheets.
And that’s not counting the Daily Record and Sunday Mail which the Mirror owns in Scotland. It would certainly mean they have a bigger stable of national daily and Sunday papers than Murdoch.
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In all likelihood, what agencies and freelances would fear most is the closure of at least one paper – and let’s face it, the Daily Star Sunday would be favourite to go – should the takeover go ahead.
That means one less market for exclusives and more journalists out of work.
It would be nice if the Mirror could do something to boost the Daily and Sunday Express, both in terms of readers and staff.
At the moment you have royal reporters doubling up as political correspondents and a shoestring newsdesk working admirably along with some decent subs.
You half expect the doorman to be the sports editor but then he’d have to bring Desmond his daily banana on a silver tray too.
But the journalists have had few, if any, pay rises over the last decade and need a boost. So too do both the paper’s readers – rumoured to be a retired major in Tonbridge and his spinster cousin in a nursing home somewhere just outside Reigate.
The thing everyone knows about Express readers is that it is a dying readership, literally in many cases. It needs new blood, in the boardroom, the newsroom and among buyers.
The question is – does a new owner make the Daily Express more or less right wing in order to nick readers off the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph?
Obviously the current diet of splashes about the weather, a cure for dementia, Princess Di, Madeleine McCann and immigrants ruining our country is keeping them afloat – but only just.
If it does change tack, let’s hope it boosts pagination with more stories from proper journalists and fewer columns by people who were famous 40 years ago but happen to be friends of the owner.
That is the way to invest in journalism and so most of us who are trying to earn a living from newspapers will hope the takeover goes ahead.
An occasional blog by a NAPA news agency boss who has asked to remain anonymous
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