Max Hastings, The Times

Friday, February 01, 2002

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'How I helped to make newspapers more frivolous', Max Hastings interview by
James Silver

Max Hastings leaves the editorship of the Evening Standard after six years today and gives the impression of a man with few regrets. What Paul Dacre, the Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers, has done is to have "very sensibly identified someone who understands the London market and understands the women's market," he says. "In fact, Veronica Wadley (who takes over on Monday) understands London better than I do in many ways."

It was often said by Associated staff that Dacre resented Hastings going off to the country to shoot at the weekend. Naturally, this is a charge he dismisses. But with his navy chalk-stripe suits, stooping patrician manner and passion for blood sports, he was never an obvious choice to edit London's evening paper. Critics say that he is, at best, ambivalent towards the capital and refuses to stay in town a moment longer than he has to.

"There is a bit of truth in that," he admits. "But I don't think I know of one major-league editor at the moment who doesn't have a country house and does not rush off to the countryside. I was brought up in London, damn it, I went to day school here, and I was pushed in my pram round Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Whether it makes you a better editor if you are here seven days a week is a matter of opinion."

Nevertheless, the Standard's circulation, which currently hovers just above the 400,000 mark, has slid on his watch. How does he account for this? "This paper has been in chronic circulation decline since about 1960," he explains. "Early that decade there were something like three million evening papers being sold in London. So we have to face the fact that, worldwide, evening papers are in terminal decline. All the trends of traffic congestion, the growth of media of all kinds, make it very difficult.

"But having said that, the Standard's been doing better than the rest of the market in recent years. In the past two years we have recorded the biggest profits in our history." That is partly due to supplements that he introduced, such as Homes & Property. Then there is the entertainment guide, Hot Tickets, which has done so much damage to listings magazines such as Time Out.

Hastings, 56, had his first piece published in the Standard in 1963, when still a teenager. He has spent the past 16 years as an editor, ten of them at The Daily Telegraph. And thanks to his arrival in Port Stanley ahead of the Paras at the end of the Falklands conflict, he is one of the most recognisable journalists of his generation.

When asked about the biggest single change in the industry in his time, he replies: "I am afraid newspapers have become more frivolous over the years, and we have all been party to this. If I want to know what is going on in the world, I would take, at home, the International Herald Tribune and the Financial Times.

"The other broadsheet newspapers which used to carry a lot of serious information have now all become "Hurleygraphs". And I will not pretend this is something I have had no part in. I am part of the generation of editors who have been involved in this and the reason we have done it is that the evidence suggests this is what readers want."

(The Times, February 1st, 2002)

Posted by James Silver - On Friday, February 01, 2002

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