Interview: Simon Kelner, The Independent (Evening Standard)
By David Rowan
He prompted a newspaper revolution two and a half years ago when he took the Independent "compact". Now Simon Kelner has a new idea for arresting the industry's long-term decline. Forget cutting cover prices and wasting money on the internet. Instead, he wants to force readers to pay 50 per cent more for their morning paper.
At a time of gradually falling circulation, this may sound an eccentric strategy. But Kelner is deadly serious. "We sell our product far too cheaply, and cover prices have got to go up," he explains in his Isle of Dogs office. "A daily paper should be a pound, a Saturday and a Sunday quality paper should be heading up to £2.
"That's when the economics change, and you can put more investment in the journalism and be less at the mercy of the vagaries of the advertising market."
Not that he is about to take the plunge first, he stresses. "It's a very big step to get from 70p to £1," he says cautiously. "But what was very interesting, when we went from 65p to 70p, The Guardian immediately jumped from 60p to 70p. There's a sense within the quality market that now is the time to be a bit more aggressive about pricing."
He has been thinking a good deal about The Guardian lately, watching its relaunch, and that of The Observer, with particular interest. Having professed an ambition to overtake his nearest rival's circulation back in 2004, he still has some way before he can claim success: The Independent currently sells 214,490 copies excluding bulks, compared with 364,941 for The Guardian.
What, then, does he make of the latter's "Berliner" relaunch last September, which quickly pulled back some of his own paper's sales gains? "Bits of it are terrific, other bits I'm not that sold on," he begins, crediting his rival as "a formidable newspaper with lots of very good people".
Then he gets down to business. "We reckon they've spent £110 million on their relaunch, and on a daily basis they're anything from three to five per cent up [in sales]. Judged by the standards of what traditional media owners would expect for an investment of £110 million, I don't think you'd call it a roaring success." Ouch.
Some Independent readers who defected have already returned, he adds, with some disaffected Guardian readers joining them. "I don't know what Alan [Rusbridger] set out to achieve, as he is clever enough not to set any targets," he says, "but I'm happy that a lot of his energies seem to be applied to the internet."
This is a reference to The Guardian's increasing online investment, most recently the announcement of a "rolling comment" weblog. "There's an illogicality in Rusbridger's position," Kelner says. "If the web is the future and newspapers are dead, why spend £110 million on the newspaper? The web is very important to us but I'm very focused on the paper. The paper is the brand, in which you've got to build the trust and authority before you expand it online."
Kelner has been editor-in-chief of the daily and The Independent on Sunday since May 1998, having previously edited sport and magazine sections for the Independent, Observer, Sunday Correspondent and Mail on Sunday. A grammar-school boy who went from Preston Poly on to the Neath Guardian, his northern accent sets him apart from his more metropolitan peers.
Whereas Alan Rusbridger (Magdalene, Cambridge) networks at the Garrick, Kelner lists two clubs in Who's Who - the Groucho, but also Swinton Rugby League Supporters.
Rusbridger has airily dismissed Kelner's approach to opinion-led front pages as "a different kind of journalism". The "viewspaper" approach, he claimed, put The Independent on "a dangerous slope", imperilling serious news values in favour of the Daily Mail's tabloid populism. "I don't accept that," Kelner replies. "In its market, the Daily Mail is a terrific newspaper. I don't agree with its politics, and a lot of the things it does are anathema to me, but it's commercially very successful."
After years of financial losses, Sir Tony O'Reilly, the former Heinz boss who owns the papers, has suggested that this year they will finally turn a profit. "This is the year we break even," Kelner corrects delicately. "That's what we're aiming for. But the financial position is healthy." The balance sheet will be boosted by the 25 per cent yearon-year rise of The Independent on Sunday's January sales, he says, after a relaunch he describes as "more than I hoped it would be". It may have been helped by the weakness of the Sunday Telegraph relaunch, he suggests, which "is absolutely haemorrhaging readers".
There have been suggestions that Ivan Fallon, the parent company's chief executive, has persuaded Kelner to ease the daily towards the Right politically, in an attempt to attract new readers. Dominic Lawson, the former Sunday Telegraph editor, was signed up as a columnist - to some resistance from long-term staff - and now writes alongside Rightwinger Bruce Anderson.
"In a sense, journalism is marketing, and if you feel there is a market for more right-of-centre opinion, you have to satisfy that market. The Tories are a story for our readers again. Which is why Dominic is a very attractive hire."
Does that suggest that The Independent is abandoning its first principles by favouring the Conservatives? "I like David Cameron. He clearly shares some of the sensibilities of Independent readers. But as to the future shape of the Tory Party, I think the jury's out. It would be difficult for us to move that close to the party."
What next for Kelner himself? "There's no other newspaper I want to edit," he insists - although he does acknowledge having "a couple of discussions" with Sly Bailey in 2004 about editing the Mirror, "but it never got to the stage where I had to make a decision".
"It's our 20th anniversary on 7 October, and I hope I'm spared to carry on," he says. After all, there remain unfulfilled ambitions. "Well, we haven't broken even yet," he reflects. "And we haven't overtaken The Guardian ... But if you ask me about the biggest achievement of my time here - and it's not my achievement - it's that you've spent an hour with me, and you haven't asked the question, 'Will the Independent survive?'"
Eight years ago, he says, it was the first question a journalist would ask. "Even five years ago. And you haven't. Doesn't that show how far we've come?"
(Evening Standard, February 8 2006)
He prompted a newspaper revolution two and a half years ago when he took the Independent "compact". Now Simon Kelner has a new idea for arresting the industry's long-term decline. Forget cutting cover prices and wasting money on the internet. Instead, he wants to force readers to pay 50 per cent more for their morning paper.
At a time of gradually falling circulation, this may sound an eccentric strategy. But Kelner is deadly serious. "We sell our product far too cheaply, and cover prices have got to go up," he explains in his Isle of Dogs office. "A daily paper should be a pound, a Saturday and a Sunday quality paper should be heading up to £2.
"That's when the economics change, and you can put more investment in the journalism and be less at the mercy of the vagaries of the advertising market."
Not that he is about to take the plunge first, he stresses. "It's a very big step to get from 70p to £1," he says cautiously. "But what was very interesting, when we went from 65p to 70p, The Guardian immediately jumped from 60p to 70p. There's a sense within the quality market that now is the time to be a bit more aggressive about pricing."
He has been thinking a good deal about The Guardian lately, watching its relaunch, and that of The Observer, with particular interest. Having professed an ambition to overtake his nearest rival's circulation back in 2004, he still has some way before he can claim success: The Independent currently sells 214,490 copies excluding bulks, compared with 364,941 for The Guardian.
What, then, does he make of the latter's "Berliner" relaunch last September, which quickly pulled back some of his own paper's sales gains? "Bits of it are terrific, other bits I'm not that sold on," he begins, crediting his rival as "a formidable newspaper with lots of very good people".
Then he gets down to business. "We reckon they've spent £110 million on their relaunch, and on a daily basis they're anything from three to five per cent up [in sales]. Judged by the standards of what traditional media owners would expect for an investment of £110 million, I don't think you'd call it a roaring success." Ouch.
Some Independent readers who defected have already returned, he adds, with some disaffected Guardian readers joining them. "I don't know what Alan [Rusbridger] set out to achieve, as he is clever enough not to set any targets," he says, "but I'm happy that a lot of his energies seem to be applied to the internet."
This is a reference to The Guardian's increasing online investment, most recently the announcement of a "rolling comment" weblog. "There's an illogicality in Rusbridger's position," Kelner says. "If the web is the future and newspapers are dead, why spend £110 million on the newspaper? The web is very important to us but I'm very focused on the paper. The paper is the brand, in which you've got to build the trust and authority before you expand it online."
Kelner has been editor-in-chief of the daily and The Independent on Sunday since May 1998, having previously edited sport and magazine sections for the Independent, Observer, Sunday Correspondent and Mail on Sunday. A grammar-school boy who went from Preston Poly on to the Neath Guardian, his northern accent sets him apart from his more metropolitan peers.
Whereas Alan Rusbridger (Magdalene, Cambridge) networks at the Garrick, Kelner lists two clubs in Who's Who - the Groucho, but also Swinton Rugby League Supporters.
Rusbridger has airily dismissed Kelner's approach to opinion-led front pages as "a different kind of journalism". The "viewspaper" approach, he claimed, put The Independent on "a dangerous slope", imperilling serious news values in favour of the Daily Mail's tabloid populism. "I don't accept that," Kelner replies. "In its market, the Daily Mail is a terrific newspaper. I don't agree with its politics, and a lot of the things it does are anathema to me, but it's commercially very successful."
After years of financial losses, Sir Tony O'Reilly, the former Heinz boss who owns the papers, has suggested that this year they will finally turn a profit. "This is the year we break even," Kelner corrects delicately. "That's what we're aiming for. But the financial position is healthy." The balance sheet will be boosted by the 25 per cent yearon-year rise of The Independent on Sunday's January sales, he says, after a relaunch he describes as "more than I hoped it would be". It may have been helped by the weakness of the Sunday Telegraph relaunch, he suggests, which "is absolutely haemorrhaging readers".
There have been suggestions that Ivan Fallon, the parent company's chief executive, has persuaded Kelner to ease the daily towards the Right politically, in an attempt to attract new readers. Dominic Lawson, the former Sunday Telegraph editor, was signed up as a columnist - to some resistance from long-term staff - and now writes alongside Rightwinger Bruce Anderson.
"In a sense, journalism is marketing, and if you feel there is a market for more right-of-centre opinion, you have to satisfy that market. The Tories are a story for our readers again. Which is why Dominic is a very attractive hire."
Does that suggest that The Independent is abandoning its first principles by favouring the Conservatives? "I like David Cameron. He clearly shares some of the sensibilities of Independent readers. But as to the future shape of the Tory Party, I think the jury's out. It would be difficult for us to move that close to the party."
What next for Kelner himself? "There's no other newspaper I want to edit," he insists - although he does acknowledge having "a couple of discussions" with Sly Bailey in 2004 about editing the Mirror, "but it never got to the stage where I had to make a decision".
"It's our 20th anniversary on 7 October, and I hope I'm spared to carry on," he says. After all, there remain unfulfilled ambitions. "Well, we haven't broken even yet," he reflects. "And we haven't overtaken The Guardian ... But if you ask me about the biggest achievement of my time here - and it's not my achievement - it's that you've spent an hour with me, and you haven't asked the question, 'Will the Independent survive?'"
Eight years ago, he says, it was the first question a journalist would ask. "Even five years ago. And you haven't. Doesn't that show how far we've come?"
(Evening Standard, February 8 2006)
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