So Sarah Sands lasted only eight months in the editor's chair at the Sunday Telegraph. I have to say I think she has nearly ruined a great paper. She has been chasing the women readers so relentlessly she seems to have forgotten about male readers. Most news stories in recent months seem to have been aimed at female readers and the redesign certainly gave the paper a more feminine feel. The Sunday Telegraph was always the first Sunday paper I would turn to yet that is no longer the case. Its political coverage is a shadow of what it was, and that's no reflection on its political journalists. They simply couldn't get stories into the paper, and what they did get in had to be sexed up - or at least that's how it seemed. Patience Wheatcroft (pictured) will be an altogether tougher cookie than Ms Sands and I suspect there will be some vigorous debate about the future direction of the paper under her editorship. I know Patience a little and she is certainly no fan of Cameroonian economics - she's very much a Redwoodite in her views on government and economic policy. She's reportedly fallen out with Times editor Robert Thomson in recent months but I think she's someone The Times is going to miss.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
All Change at the Sunday Telegraph (again...)
So Sarah Sands lasted only eight months in the editor's chair at the Sunday Telegraph. I have to say I think she has nearly ruined a great paper. She has been chasing the women readers so relentlessly she seems to have forgotten about male readers. Most news stories in recent months seem to have been aimed at female readers and the redesign certainly gave the paper a more feminine feel. The Sunday Telegraph was always the first Sunday paper I would turn to yet that is no longer the case. Its political coverage is a shadow of what it was, and that's no reflection on its political journalists. They simply couldn't get stories into the paper, and what they did get in had to be sexed up - or at least that's how it seemed. Patience Wheatcroft (pictured) will be an altogether tougher cookie than Ms Sands and I suspect there will be some vigorous debate about the future direction of the paper under her editorship. I know Patience a little and she is certainly no fan of Cameroonian economics - she's very much a Redwoodite in her views on government and economic policy. She's reportedly fallen out with Times editor Robert Thomson in recent months but I think she's someone The Times is going to miss.
PW has always appeared rock solid to me. If she's taking over and SS is out then I will probably return to the ST fold.
ReplyDeleteI agree - my patience as a male ST reader was being sorely tested. The writing standard is poor, and even serious analysis is presented in an annoying Jackanory style. I think the last straw was recruting Terry Wogan as a columnist!
ReplyDeleteGood riddance to Patience Witchcraft.
ReplyDeleteCannot agree more. Stopped buying the Sunday Telegraph as could not be bothered to understand what they were trying to do with their lipstick journalism.
ReplyDeleteHave a real problem though because the Sunday Times is not a lot better!
Thank god for that. Sands first move as editor was sacking one of their best columnists, Kevin Myers, and replacing him with the truly awful student sloan ranger, Anna Stothard. Nepotism is not good. Hopefully Matthew Norman will also get the sack now.
ReplyDeletePersonally I don't see why they got rid of Dominic Lawson in the first place.