From 1948 to 1975, David Astor transformed Britain’s oldest paper into a vibrant, intelligent weekly renowned for its progressive campaigns and the quality of its writing. The author of a new biography recalls some of Astor’s achievements• Click here to read an extract on Astor’s lifelong interest in psychoanalysisDavid Astor was in his mid-30s and recently demobbed when, in 1945, he began to work full time on his family newspaper. Although he had long been the heir-apparent, his father, Waldorf Astor, felt that he needed more experience before becoming the editor of the Observer: he was made the foreign editor, while Ivor Brown, an old-fashioned man of letters, given to writing books about cricket and the theatre, held the fort as acting editor.Cyril Dunn, later to report for the paper from India and South Africa, joined the Observer in 1947 and quickly realised that “David Astor was in total control of what was going on and Ivor Brown was making no attempt to disguise his figurehead status” and that “what I witnessed were the birth pangs of an Observer sensationally different from anything in its own past and a paper unique and wonderful in western journalism as a whole”. Astor was singlemindedly converting a conservative, rather frowsty newspaper into a non-party paper of the centre-left, famed for the quality of its writers: it would combine support for the postwar welfare state with a belief in free enterprise and the mixed economy, anti-communism and Atlanticism... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2016-02-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 14/02/2011 - 15:26 David Graham has been appointed managing director of Aurum and its UK trade publishing division, also titled Aurum. Former Granta staff Alex Clark and Rosalind Porter are also to set up a new literary imprint at the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 09/02/2011 - 07:28 PA chief executive Richard Mollet has stressed the "political . . and social imperative to promote literacy", calling on delegates at the PA's second annual digital seminar to "do all we can to promote people and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Waterstones head of e-commerce David Kohn is leaving the company at the end of this week. Kohn has worked with the book retailer for the last two and a half years. He is leaving to pursue a number of digital investment opportunities, according to a Waterstones... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Total revenue jumped 9 percent to $367 million for Meredith Corp in the second quarter of fiscal 2011, driven by strong advertising growth and integrated marketing services. Total advertising revenue for the first six months of fiscal 2011 jumped 11 percent to $420 million (with total revenue of... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-01-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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