Examination of Witnesses (Questions 1451
- 1459)
WEDNESDAY 16 JANUARY 2008
Ms Rebekah Wade
Q1451 Chairman:
Welcome and thank you very much for coming. We are reviewing the
concentration of ownership and the impact that has on the media
generallybroadcasting and newspapers. We are therefore
interested in the trends in the media; we are interested in what
this means for the provision of news to the public; and we are
interested in how the public interest can be maintained and protected.
It is a fairly wide brief, therefore. You have been Editor of
The Sun since 2003 and before that you were Editor of the
News of the World, I think.
Ms Wade: That is right, yes.
Q1452 Chairman:
You have therefore been Editor of both of these very big-circulation
newspapers. Although in the last 15 years your readership on The
Sun has fallenand we will come to thatyou still
have more readers than any other daily newspaper in Britain, over
seven million. That is more than the Telegraph, The
Times, the Guardian, the Financial Times and
the Independent put together.
Ms Wade: I think that it is actually eight on
the NRS; just under eight.
Q1453 Chairman:
We will give you our latest National Readership Survey figures,
and between seven and eight I think would be an accurate way to
put it; but let us not argue about the odd million.
Ms Wade: It is very important!
Q1454 Chairman:
To you, indeed. For correctness I will quote it, and I think I
am right in saying that the latest figure we have, which is for
2006, shows 7.7 million. That is roughly where we are, but that
is 2006 and not 2007. At any rate, you are still the biggest newspaper
in terms of readership in the UK. Do you feel that, as Editor
of The Sun, that gives you a lot of influence with the
public?
Ms Wade: The way it works at The Sun,
and I think that The Sun is a very individual newspaper
in this way, we have a very close relationship with our readers.
That is to say, they are very vocal about their wants, their needs,
if they like something or if they do not like something. At the
heart of any decision we make at The Sun, it is in their
best interests. If there is a gap between public policy and Sun
readers' public opinion, that will always launch a campaign of
some sort. As you know, I am particularly keen on revising the
1997 Sex Offenders Actchild protectionand, both
at the News of the World and at The Sun, I have
campaigned relentlessly to get those laws tighter, and we have
had great success. We have had 16 new pieces of legislation. Yes,
in some ways I see what you mean, that the reach of the readers
means that we have influence; but it is more that that eight million7.7
millionhave influence on me.
Q1455 Chairman:
Let me put it another way. One of your predecessors, Kelvin MacKenzie,
claimed that he won the 1992 general election for John Major.
Do you think that The Sun swings elections in that way?
Ms Wade: I think that the headline you are referring
to is "It Was The Sun Wot Won It".
Q1456 Chairman:
It is.
Ms Wade: That headline, it was Sun readers.
I think the editorial that Kelvin ran that dayI cannot
remember it verbatimwas basically "Sun readers
last night voted for ... ". Again, I think that is the readers.
Q1457 Chairman:
You do not think that it is The Sun actually having an
influence on the readers? It surely must be a two-way process.
Ms Wade: I think that what we do at The Sun
very well is condense public policy in easy-to-understand language.
For example, as you know very well, you get a document like this
which is the latest public policyit can be the latest health
policy or
Q1458 Baroness Thornton:
But did you not have editorials which said "Vote Conservative",
leading up to the 1992 election? Or "We advise you to vote
Conservative"?
Ms Wade: I cannot remember the editorials in
1992.
Q1459 Baroness Thornton:
Do you mean it was a surprise to you that your readers won this
election for John Major, without anything you might have said
to them?
Ms Wade: I was not there at the time, though.
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