25/07/2008

Gobsmacking news - reported on Wednesday, on allmediascotland - about the appointment of my old mate, Murray Morse, as the new editor-in-chief at the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport.

Since he walked out of his last post at the Cambridge Evening News (with tearful staff applauding him all the way), I’d been giving the Morsemeister snippets of help and advice as he set up a new media consultancy business.

It was great to catch up with him two months ago, when he came to our offices to have a look over some of the software, paperwork and other gubbins involved (the kind of stuff you simply don’t think about when starting out).

So, I was as amazed when the news broke about his new job in Manchester. Can’t say how jealous I am that he’ll be working with the likes of legendary Loaded magazine founder, James Brown. In the legendary words of that genius publication, Good Work Fella! (in its 90s heyday, Loaded gave its readers a new vocabulary, including the aforementioned GWF, as well as its flip side, bunch of @rse).

I’m sure there are loads of serious media issues to ponder on here. The Sport titles may be considered little more than a top shelf comic by the newspaper cognoscenti and the chattering classes.

Yet the Sunday Sport has been around for about 20 years, it still makes money and just about everyone knows one of its legendary headlines (World War 2 Bomber Found on Moon; Woman pregnant for 65 years gives birth to a pensioner; Aliens Turned my Son into a Fish Finger).

I’ll leave it to the media sections in the broadsheet papers to pontificate on the cultural raison d’etre  for the existence of such an in-your-face media oddity.

What I really want to know is what Mr Morse plans to do with the legendary Sport newspapers nipple count?

Regardless of what he gets up to, the new job sounds like a total hoot and I’m glad he has landed on his feet.

Even if you ignore his many newspaper talents, Muzza deserves his latest break for his sheer stamina during a 20-year job-hopping jaunt that has taken him all round the UK.

Stopping off points along the way included stints in Southampton, Edinburgh, London, Aberdeen, Belfast, Glasgow, Cardiff, Newcastle and Cambridge.

Phew. As the man himself points out: “Manchester must be the last major media centre I’ve not worked in.”

Good luck, Muzza. The Sport will have at least one extra reader over the coming couple of months. Just don’t tell my missus.

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Scott Douglas is a former journalist who now runs Edinburgh-based PR consultancy, Holyrood Partnership and the successful Deadline Press & Picture Agency. He blogs regularly on media issues, here.

Comment: So we're bigging up the Sunday Sport now - classy. Was this supposed to be funny?
Doubtless it was -  to its author and his party pal but I think you are losing sight of what your subscribers want to read. Come on - you can do better than this old-pals-act related guff.
I have said it before. Bring back the quality control please. Clare Grant



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