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MacArthur, Brian (2 of 5). Oral History of the British Press

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  • Title:
    MacArthur, Brian (2 of 5). Oral History of the British Press
  • Subjects: editors ; journalists ; media ; press
  • Description: Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- Part 2: He modelled his writing on the Observer and began to meet real journalists. In his second year he was news editor of the Union News. They had prominent MPs in the north west, Gaitskell, Healey, Alice Bacon and Keith Joseph. Briefly they set up a rival publication, the Union Post. The campaigns were about freedom really, student accommodation and the lodgings crisis and sex. Then BMA stood for president of the union which was a Communist vs non Communist fight. There was a huge union vote and BMA won. The National Union of Students financed his last year. He got a lousy degree. The Yorkshire Post paid him for writing a penny halfpenny a line. And then they took him on for four weeks over Christmas. They had never taken graduates before. In 1961-2 he never did a course, later you had to do training. [9:07] They were a Tory paper but the young reporters were all Labourites, and ran a campaign to help Labour. The Yorkshire Post was a good training ground, you just sink or swim. The Bishop of Bradford provided a first break. BMA was into general reporting, police and fire, and became university correspondent for the north visiting Hull and other places. He had nothing to do with the composing room, but the building vibrated when the presses rolled. He was at the Yorkshire Post from 1962-64. He got engaged to be married at university but later they drifted apart. [18:04] Then he moved to the Daily Mail in Manchester under Ken Donman, who was a fierce editor. Stories. BMA really learnt there. He called BMA highly strung which he thinks he is. Description of copy takers and Simon Hoggart's story. They would go to the pub after work. Manchester prides itself on being hard, tough, and rough. It was hectic. BMA was sent to fill in in London and do a survey of boarding houses, which he stayed in, to others' amazement. He was unhappy at the Daily Mail in London. 1964 interviewed by Brian Redhead of the Mancester Guardian. [ 28: 30] He shared a flat with Nick Lloyd. It was a sub editors paper, the Daily Mail. He learnt about the short snappy introduction. Story of the National Union of Teachers and the Trades Union Council. [32:32] Michael Frayn and Peter Preston were recruited. They started work at about 11 am. BMA wrote a story about airline safety and it was printed unaltered which gave him confidence. Then he was suddenly sent to Ulster, where he had friends in Belfast. He still remembers Ian Paisley declaiming on the hillside which was quite shocking, and the brick through the car window. He is credited with waking up England to what was happening there. He covered the first honorary degree ceremony at York university and Eric James wrote him an appreciative letter. [39:04] The Guardian had a crisis Dec 66 Christmas Eve redundancy notices were sent out. He turned the Times down once. Chances and offers mused on, 1984. The Times job accepted. He would have liked to end his career on the Guardian, but it was good to be there in the 1960s. He thinks the Guardian is right to have gone to a berliner size, in between tabloid and broadsheet. The Independent only has one story on the front page. [46:28] In 1967 he went to The Times in Printing House Square. Lord Thomson was the ideal proprietor prepared to lose millions. The editor had been Harry Evans. The Times was the paper of record. BMA's editor William Rees-Mogg [WRM] was revolutionary. On his first day BMA wrote a piece on overseas student fees. It was the time of the student revolts. Anthony Crosland gave a press conference. BMA has come to know him well. The main places of revolt were the London School of Economics, Essex university and Hornsey Art College. The press were well informed, and it was an exciting story. BMA enjoyed working for WRM who never altered his copy and was very encouraging. [53:58] In 1969 BMA went to America on a student scheme, visiting Berkley and Stanford, WRM sent him congratulations on his piece The Times still had butlers and Edna going round with the tea trolley and bedrooms for editors. BMA remembers Sir David Eccles coming in to protest about the British Library expansion proposals. BMA was radical in his politics. There are some enthusiasms he might regret. He thinks the 11 plus concept was wrong, comprehensive schools are a good idea but were not implemented properly. [1:00:05] In 1966, his first wife Peta was a journalist. It was a short marriage as they hardly ever saw each other. Then he met Bridget, a teacher, and they were married for 20 years from 1975. They have two daughters, Tessa and Georgie who are both highly educated and have good jobs. Maureen Waller is his third wife from 2000. She works for a publisher and has written several historical books. Journalists have very long hours which is difficult for family relationships. They even staged a revolt about this at one time. [1:06:03] In 1967 The Times was in a transition phase. For a "great" paper it was not actually very good. WRM introduced a business section and made it a European paper for a while. They improved the sports and the arts. Mention of Harold Wilson and Tom Dryberg. WRM wrote strong leaders. On the Rolling Stones too. There was tension between the old guard and the new guard. There was an internal revolt. Story of WRM not being able to finish reading the paper before he got to Paddington because it was so dense. [1:11:43] For a few months BMA became deputy features editor under Charles Douglas-Home. Then he was called in by Denis Hamilton in 1971, when the magazine Senate started to concentrate on higher education. BMA became the founder editor of the Times Higher Education Supplement in competition to Senate. He was given 3 years to make a profit. They produced a dummy in 6 months. BMA had marvellous staff including Binion and Hennessy. He had to fire Christopher Hitchens which he didn't like doing. [1:16:57] He had someone covering politics, the universities, polytechnics. Market research told them how to adjust when necessary. They had pages and pages of advertisements for teachers. [1:20:02] They made visits to universities and were like a band of brothers for about 5 years. The Times Educational Supplement started covering higher education and BMA had to have a nasty fight with them to keep off his turf. They had an American correspondent whom they shared with the Times. They got to a circulation of 20,000 and it became a nice little earner. [1:24:36] 4 out of 10 of BMA's staff were women. They mainly did fashion and features until the 1980s and 90s when they became mainstream and now hold top jobs. It was natural to employ them. BMA took them on the way up and then they would go on to the bigger papers.- All metadata published by Europeana are available free of restriction under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. However, Europeana requests that you actively acknowledge and give attribution to all metadata sources including Europeana
  • Creation Date: 2007
  • Language: English
  • Source: Europeana Collections
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