Examination of Witnesses (Questions 2526
- 2539)
TUESDAY 20 MAY 2008
Lord Rothermere, Mr Charles Sinclair and Mr Kevin
Beatty
Q2526 Chairman: Good
morning and welcome. Thank you very much for coming. We are very
grateful indeed. I think you know what we are about. We are looking
at ownership of the media and its impact upon coverage of the
news. We are particularly interested in that kind of relationship,
but obviously it goes into a whole range of other areas, like
regulation of the new ownership and the rest. Did you want to
say something, Lord Rothermere, to begin with?
Lord Rothermere: Yes, please. I would like to
make a very short opening statement, if I may. We are pleased
to appear before you today to assist your Committee with its inquiry
into media ownership and the news. In order to help your Committee
direct its questions I could perhaps just outline a division of
responsibilities between us. I am the Chairman of Daily Mail and
General Trust. I am the Chairman of the Board, which has the role
of setting the overall strategic direction for the DMGT Group
as a whole. Charles Sinclair, who has been Chief Executive of
DMGT for more than 20 years, is responsible for DMGT's portfolio
of media businesses here and internationally. Kevin Beatty, Managing
Director of Associated Newspapers, has the same role as Charles
for our national, London and regional newspapers and their associated
digital businesses. Both Charles and Kevin sit on the DMGT Board.
As you know, one of senior editors has already appeared before
this Committee. We welcome the opportunity to give a management
perspective on the issues you have raised with us. With that,
I hope that we can be very helpful.
Q2527 Chairman:
Thank you very much indeed. Let me try and divide the questions
a bit at the beginning and address some to you, Lord Rothermere,
and then we will put some specifically to Charles Sinclair and
Kevin Beatty. Let me begin in a general way: there have been ups
and downs in the history of the Daily Mail; and back in
1970-71 the salvation appeared to be a merger with the Daily
Express; but instead the decision was taken then to go tabloid.
You had David English introducing a new, bright coverage. There
has been a lot of criticism of ownership, but is a recovery like
that the justification of strong owners prepared to back their
own judgment?
Lord Rothermere: I think that kind of recovery
is justification for a strong board and a long-term perspective,
which my company has long held and, I hope, will continue to hold
while I am Chairman.
Q2528 Chairman:
But it was a spectacular recovery from the position it was once
in?
Lord Rothermere: To Sir David English and my
father I owe a great deal of gratitude, as do the shareholders
of DMGT.
Q2529 Chairman:
Going to yourself—do you regard yourself as the owner, the
proprietor of the business?
Lord Rothermere: I consider myself to the Chairman
of the Board.
Q2530 Chairman:
Correct me if I am wrong, but your company owns the majority of
the voting shares, does it not?
Lord Rothermere: My immediate family do control
60% of the voting shares, yes.
Q2531 Chairman:
You are, in effect, the dominating shareholder in the Group?
Lord Rothermere: I am the controlling shareholder,
yes, or my family is.
Q2532 Chairman:
As Chairman, do you regard yourself as executive chairman, non-executive
chairman, or something in between?
Lord Rothermere: I would say that my role is
executive in some areas and non-executive in others; so it is
somewhere in-between.
Q2533 Chairman:
In your evidence you make a lot about the editorial independence
of your editors. Are you saying that your editors are totally
independent from the Board, both on national titles and regional
titles?
Lord Rothermere: The Board obviously takes an
interest in the newspapers, but we let the editors edit those
newspapers.
Q2534 Chairman:
Does that mean you do not interfere at all?
Lord Rothermere: Yes.
Q2535 Chairman:
You would not at any stage interfere in the coverage or suggest
a particular line that should be taken?
Lord Rothermere: No.
Q2536 Chairman:
Not even on a political line, or anything of that kind?
Lord Rothermere: No. Not unless it was extreme.
Q2537 Chairman:
I was going to say. If Paul Dacre changed the policy of the paper
to legalising cannabis and in favour of joining the euro—which
I do concede is an unlikely event, but if he did—would not
the Board intervene at that point?
Lord Rothermere: I do not believe
those are extreme enough for us to get involved.
Chairman: Really! How extreme do they
have to go?
Lord Maxton: If they came out in support
of the Labour Party!
Q2538 Chairman:
Is there a particular guide for editors? I was looking back in
the history of your company when David English took over, and
he set out his belief that the Mail should appeal to people
who were: traditional, without being reactionary; who were believers
in the individual being independent; who were ambitious; not yet
rich but they hoped to be some day; and who very much believed
in this country. Is there that sort of guide to editors, that
this is where the Mail and The Mail on Sunday actually
are?
Lord Rothermere: I think that is a very good
description of the Daily Mail; it is not the entire description.
There is nothing written down, no. I think we choose our editors
because we believe that they have a strong understanding of the
readership of the paper and what that readership wants to read.
Q2539 Chairman:
When it comes to political allegiance that is actually down to
the editors, is it?
Lord Rothermere: Yes.
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