Sunday Media commentators

Peter Preston asks If the net is killing newspapers, why are they doing so well?

"global newspaper sales up 2.3 per cent last year (and
9.48 per cent in the past five years), ad revenues up 3.7 per cent and 15.7 per
cent over the same two spans. If this is doom and gloom, give me another
helping..."

The Independent gives Roy Greenslade a roasting

How kind of Roy Greenslade to give The Independent on
Sunday relaunch such attention on his blog at 'The Guardian'. When the old
dinosaur, on hols in Tuscany, finally got hold of a copy, his eagerly awaited
review was somewhat short on compliments. Those helpful types at 'The Guardian'
website also managed to forward many of his fans to our own site. Greenslade's
blog suggested that what this newspaper needed was "a dodgy proprietor and a
game, perhaps bingo, which he knows no one can win, so that he can con people
into buying the paper. But what kind of journalist would go along with that sort
of thing?" Well, his colleagues remember Roy best, when editing the 'Mirror'
(briefly), for presiding over a spot-the ball-competition that was fixed so no
one could win.

In the same paper David Randall reports on the BBC's aploogy to Alex Salmond following Thursday's newsnight.


James Cameron writes in the Observer as the "Gloves come off as Mirror and Cameron declare war".In the light of deteriorating relations between the two parties,

"The secret talks were requested by Cameron some time
ago, and took place in his office in Portcullis House on Wednesday, with no
aides or advisers present. He used it to complain about the Mirror's coverage,
comparing it to that endured by former Labour leader Neil Kinnock at the hands
of the Sun, claiming: 'You're treating me worse than the Sun treated Kinnock in
the 1980s."

And continues

Wallace, himself a former spin doctor, told Cameron
such criticism was par for the course for politicians, pointing out that as the
only card-carrying Labour paper, the Daily Mirror was duty bound to heap
opprobrium on the leader of the Conservative party on a near-daily basis.
He
referred to the Mirror's front-page on the morning of the last general election
- which depicted Cameron's predecessor, Michael Howard, as a vampire with a
stake through his heart - as an example of what was to come, noting that it was
'a proper piece of abuse'.
'I was quite shocked,' Wallace later told a
colleague. 'This is a man who wants to be Prime Minister, and he was whining
away like a little schoolboy'

Finally the paper's media diary tells us that

Peter Mandelson was invited on to the Today programme
last Friday to talk about the Royal Festival Hall - the brainchild of his
grandfather, Herbert Morrison - but the nation's favourite spin doctor couldn't
resist using his airtime to take a sly dig at newspaper editors. When the
Festival Hall first opened in 1951, some senior scribes got stuck in a lift,
John Humphrys reminded him, and a similar incident occurred nearly 50 years
later, when editors attending the opening of the Millennium Dome were stuck at
Stratford station. 'Editors were made of stronger stuff then,' Mandy sneered.
'They weren't nearly as craven or self-indulgent as they are now.'
Ouch!