Interview: Peter Hill, Daily Star (Evening Standard)
The new editor of the year, the Daily Star's Peter Hill, offers Fleet Street his tips on survival. By David Rowan
THE editor of the Daily Star has been advertising for a "brilliant new Bitch" to join his "go-getting" showbiz gossip team, and is reflecting aloud on his ideal candidate. " I'd have no objection to a male Bitch, especially one who's gay and is up for partying," Peter Hill says in the dry, deadpan tone of a Peter Cook Beyond the Fringe character. "Now, Samuel Pepys would have made a terrific Bitch - the way he went to church just to catch the gossip. Or James Boswell. Or how about Dickens? No, on second thoughts, Dickens would have been a columnist on the Sunday Express."
His own literary output may be limited to "Kylie's Hot Date With TV Hunk" headlines, but Hill, the new What the Papers Say editor of the year, is a more thoughtful man than his paper suggests. For a start, the 53-year-old has a passion for the 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes - "Uncle Tommy", as he calls him - whose "witty, perceptive" writings he studied while a mature student at Manchester University.
Only a few weeks ago, he was delighted to read a Spectator piece by Paul Johnson pointing out that, facing war with Iraq and economic turmoil, we are today living in the chaotic world that Hobbes described. Every newspaper editor would like to know how to achieve the 20 per cent year-ony-ear circulation rises that Hill has been posting. Four years after becoming editor, and 14 after joining the paper for its first issue, he also launched a new Sunday paper last September that is already claiming to be in profit.
"There are not any clever secrets," he says in his Blackfriars office. "It's just a question of trying to give the reader what they want, rather than what some editors think they ought to get."
As he acknowledges, when he took over the Star in 1998, its future was uncertain. It had to find a low-cost editorial strategy which has meant, in part, making the careers of some staff more brutish and short than they would have liked. But it has also involved injecting what Hill calls "a little magic".
"Tabloids need a little something out of the ordinary," he explains. "The Star does it with wit and sharp headlines. And in among the hard news - and there is quite a lot of it in the paper, actually - there's an awful lot of what you might call entertainment. People who read most newspapers want to be entertained."
War with Iraq may be looming, but it is TV celebrities who concern the Star's editorial team. "I devote much of the paper to the people you see on TV, because you see their whole world," Hill says.
Then there are the babes, in various degrees of undress and on most pages. Hill rejects as "drivel" any suggestion that his paper may be demeaning women. "The page three girl has nothing to do with sex - it's a bit of fun. We even have a woman photographer take them. It's better than patronising them with a women's page."
Unlike the Mirror's Piers Morgan, Hill has no mission to change the world. "I don't take moral or ethical stances," he says. "I'm not here to educate the public - the real job is to sell more copies. If you want your newspaper to be a moral crusade, you won't survive."
Hill lives in Pimlico with his partner and four-yearold son, and has a daughter in her thirties from his first marriage who, he confesses, is a Guardian-reading teacher. But hasn't The Guardian survived with a distinctive ethical standpoint? "The Guardian? Look at the swear word on the G2 cover. That's not moral crusading. That's tabloid provocation: I'd never have that in my newspaper."
Hill began his career on the Manchester Evening News and the Huddersfield Examiner, and spent seven years on the Telegraph. In those days, the Telegraph was "a gentle patriarchy". "They lent me £5,000 to put a deposit on my house. The company secretary said, 'Just pay it back when you can, old boy.'" One presumes that Richard Desmond's Express Newspapers group does not take a similar approach today. Hill claims that the proprietor has "very, very little involvement" in what goes in his paper.
He does, though, always pay a visit before he goes home. "He'll say what he thinks about the front page, giving us the benefit of his extensive experience in publishing, and may suggest changes."
Desmond has been aggressively marketing the Star against the other tabloids. In the London area, the Star is selling at 20p - so how long does Hill believe the price wars can last? "How long can a poker game go on?" he responds. "As long as people have enough money for it to keep going."
He takes delight in the prospect of charges being brought over Morgan's alleged share-buying activities. He has even less respect for his newspaper. "It looks as if it's put together by schoolboys, using internet jokes in headlines written by sixthformers. It's bonkers."
Already Hill believes that his own Sunday paper - launched using the libel payment returned by Lord Archer - is showing up the opposition. "I thought this Sunday, for instance, we were better than the red tops," he says. But where were its genuine scoops? "Scoops are not what it's about. The scoop mentality of Sunday papers is what's driven them down. They buy up tripe and people aren't interested - more footballers screwing more blondes. It's just a bore."
But didn't the Star feature a footballer's sex life on its front page on Sunday? "You're always damned by the exception," Hill says with the slightest trace of a smile. "That's just part of the irony of being a newspaper editor."
(Evening Standard, January 8 2003)
THE editor of the Daily Star has been advertising for a "brilliant new Bitch" to join his "go-getting" showbiz gossip team, and is reflecting aloud on his ideal candidate. " I'd have no objection to a male Bitch, especially one who's gay and is up for partying," Peter Hill says in the dry, deadpan tone of a Peter Cook Beyond the Fringe character. "Now, Samuel Pepys would have made a terrific Bitch - the way he went to church just to catch the gossip. Or James Boswell. Or how about Dickens? No, on second thoughts, Dickens would have been a columnist on the Sunday Express."
His own literary output may be limited to "Kylie's Hot Date With TV Hunk" headlines, but Hill, the new What the Papers Say editor of the year, is a more thoughtful man than his paper suggests. For a start, the 53-year-old has a passion for the 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes - "Uncle Tommy", as he calls him - whose "witty, perceptive" writings he studied while a mature student at Manchester University.
Only a few weeks ago, he was delighted to read a Spectator piece by Paul Johnson pointing out that, facing war with Iraq and economic turmoil, we are today living in the chaotic world that Hobbes described. Every newspaper editor would like to know how to achieve the 20 per cent year-ony-ear circulation rises that Hill has been posting. Four years after becoming editor, and 14 after joining the paper for its first issue, he also launched a new Sunday paper last September that is already claiming to be in profit.
"There are not any clever secrets," he says in his Blackfriars office. "It's just a question of trying to give the reader what they want, rather than what some editors think they ought to get."
As he acknowledges, when he took over the Star in 1998, its future was uncertain. It had to find a low-cost editorial strategy which has meant, in part, making the careers of some staff more brutish and short than they would have liked. But it has also involved injecting what Hill calls "a little magic".
"Tabloids need a little something out of the ordinary," he explains. "The Star does it with wit and sharp headlines. And in among the hard news - and there is quite a lot of it in the paper, actually - there's an awful lot of what you might call entertainment. People who read most newspapers want to be entertained."
War with Iraq may be looming, but it is TV celebrities who concern the Star's editorial team. "I devote much of the paper to the people you see on TV, because you see their whole world," Hill says.
Then there are the babes, in various degrees of undress and on most pages. Hill rejects as "drivel" any suggestion that his paper may be demeaning women. "The page three girl has nothing to do with sex - it's a bit of fun. We even have a woman photographer take them. It's better than patronising them with a women's page."
Unlike the Mirror's Piers Morgan, Hill has no mission to change the world. "I don't take moral or ethical stances," he says. "I'm not here to educate the public - the real job is to sell more copies. If you want your newspaper to be a moral crusade, you won't survive."
Hill lives in Pimlico with his partner and four-yearold son, and has a daughter in her thirties from his first marriage who, he confesses, is a Guardian-reading teacher. But hasn't The Guardian survived with a distinctive ethical standpoint? "The Guardian? Look at the swear word on the G2 cover. That's not moral crusading. That's tabloid provocation: I'd never have that in my newspaper."
Hill began his career on the Manchester Evening News and the Huddersfield Examiner, and spent seven years on the Telegraph. In those days, the Telegraph was "a gentle patriarchy". "They lent me £5,000 to put a deposit on my house. The company secretary said, 'Just pay it back when you can, old boy.'" One presumes that Richard Desmond's Express Newspapers group does not take a similar approach today. Hill claims that the proprietor has "very, very little involvement" in what goes in his paper.
He does, though, always pay a visit before he goes home. "He'll say what he thinks about the front page, giving us the benefit of his extensive experience in publishing, and may suggest changes."
Desmond has been aggressively marketing the Star against the other tabloids. In the London area, the Star is selling at 20p - so how long does Hill believe the price wars can last? "How long can a poker game go on?" he responds. "As long as people have enough money for it to keep going."
He takes delight in the prospect of charges being brought over Morgan's alleged share-buying activities. He has even less respect for his newspaper. "It looks as if it's put together by schoolboys, using internet jokes in headlines written by sixthformers. It's bonkers."
Already Hill believes that his own Sunday paper - launched using the libel payment returned by Lord Archer - is showing up the opposition. "I thought this Sunday, for instance, we were better than the red tops," he says. But where were its genuine scoops? "Scoops are not what it's about. The scoop mentality of Sunday papers is what's driven them down. They buy up tripe and people aren't interested - more footballers screwing more blondes. It's just a bore."
But didn't the Star feature a footballer's sex life on its front page on Sunday? "You're always damned by the exception," Hill says with the slightest trace of a smile. "That's just part of the irony of being a newspaper editor."
(Evening Standard, January 8 2003)
posted by David Rowan at Wednesday, January 08, 2003
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