Attacmng the devil

Abstract

In its last issue, the British Journalism Review invited readers to vote for the greatest newspaper editor of all time. Subsequently a similar invitation was made to its readers by Press Gazette. The results of the combined poll contained some surprises. Until the week before this issue went to press, no current editor had received a legitimate vote. The final tally in this area was: Paul Dacre, Daily Mail, 1; the rest, 0. More than 20 editors featured in the voting, none of whom was female. Of these, seven dominated. Although current editors were expressly asked in the BJR not to vote for themselves, one did. No prizes for guessing whom. And there was a handful of votes for the worst editor of all time, including one for a current incumbent. Wild horses couldn't drag the name from us. Of the magnificent seven, three tied for fifth place: Arthur Christiansen, long-serving editor of the Daily Express (1932-56); Hugh Cudlipp, who edited the Sunday Pictorial and later was editor-in-chief of that paper and the Daily Mirror; and Larry Lamb, first editor of the modern Sun (Thomas Barnes, The Times, 1817-41, was only a vote behind and draws level if the vote in the piece below is taken into account). Another Sun editor, Kelvin MacKenzie, shared third place with David English, editor of the Daily Mail, 1971-92. Considerably ahead of these came C P Scott, who edited the then Manchester Guardian from 1872 until 1929 and was also proprietor from 1905. But the clear winner, by a margin similar to Scott's over those in third place, was Harold Evans, the only person to have edited both The Sunday Times and The Times. We asked Evans, in America, to comment on the results. — BILL HAGERTY