The other royals

We'll close the week by drawing together some not-very-loose threads from the UK media and public relations world. Which, like Britpop, manages to have a very high profile while having an incestuous level of connection between the players. Consider for instance this story from the Wall Street Journal (subs. req'd):

Publicis Groupe SA said it agreed to buy a majority stake in Freud Communications, the high-profile London public-relations firm known for representing top celebrities ... The move is part of the French advertising company's efforts to build up its capability in newer marketing methods. Advertising agencies increasingly are turning to techniques outside traditional print and television ads, such as viral-marketing campaigns, in an effort to reach consumers in a fragmented media landscape.

So what's that got to do with the original theme of the post? Well,

Under terms of the deal, Freud Communications Chairman and founder Matthew Freud and other shareholders in the closely held boutique plan to sell some of their stakes to Publicis, giving it a 50.1% interest, the companies said ... Mr. Freud, who will remain chairman, has had a string of celebrity clients including actors Hugh Grant and Sylvester Stallone. His wife is Elisabeth Murdoch, an independent TV-show producer and News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch's daughter. Mr. Freud is the grandson of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis.

Viral marketing ... a whole bunch of right-wing bloggers upset about the same thing at the same time ... Elisabeth Murdoch ... no, it can't be. But Fox News already having access to Freud's trickery ... be very afraid.

In other news, Dominic Lawson was canned as editor of the Sunday Telegraph. Now we have no particular knowledge of his capabilities as an editor and generally view the Telegraph (Daily and Sunday) as, not to put too fine a point on it, Unionist trash. But Lawson is one of those cases where we feel a certain regard by virtue of one column from years ago that had us in stitches laughing -- a rumination on how John Major could be seen as the protagonist of T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock:

...
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.
...
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—
...
I am no prophet—and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.
...
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;

We could go on, as Lawson did (we think it was a piece for the FT and thus probably difficult to track down). So if only for that one stroke of comic genius, we're sorry to see him go. But of course he'll be fine: the son of Nigel and brother of Nigella surely has enough connections to land another gig before too long.

Lawson was replaced by Sarah Sands. Perhaps a bit maliciously, the London Times has reprinted Sands' first speech as editor to the assembled hacks at Canary Wharf, and it's a great read. Not least because you'd never imagine an American editor giving such a speech, since here the proposterous cult of objectivity must be maintained:

... But as it happens, I also think this is an exciting time to be a conservative. This is much bigger than the Conservative Party. It is a public shift towards Conservative thinking ... The patronising assumption that a left-liberal elite knows best is in decline. We are going to hasten its end ... Mine is a neo-Thatcherite zeal for self-improvement. I am at heart a housewife. The home is sanctuary. Parents are the ultimate authority ... We are on the side of the new and the dynamic – of eastern Europe, of China, of America - rather than the protectionist countries of old Europe ...

Culturally, the liberal establishment favours the few. The book that is praised to the skies by The Guardian and does not sell more than a 100 copies. Well we are pro-history, pro-blockbuster art exhibitions, pro-Jane Austen, pro-Beethoven, pro-wild life, pro-sport and pro-Doctor Who. I haven’t yet firmly established our position on Cold Play ... I want it [the paper] to have the appeal of an iPod – lovely to look at and full of your favourite things.

At which point the mob rushed to Waterloo to catch the Eurostar and lead an invasion of France. But we digress. The London Times also helpfully points out the family angles to Sarah's promotion:

... it is not clear whether Kim Fletcher, the Telegraph’s Group’s editorial director, will feel able to stay on. Mr Fletcher is married to Sarah Sands, and journalists at the paper believe that he may feel there would too obvious a conflict of interest for him to continue.

If Mr Fletcher did leave, that could create an opportunity for the Telegraph’s owners to appoint Andrew Neil, who acts as publisher and editor-in-chief for the other titles owned by the Barclay twins, including The Scotsman and The Spectator.

Thus closing an open loop from one of our old posts speculating that when Conrad Black sold the Telegraph to the Barclays, the way was clear for the formative editor of the Fox News Channel, Andrew Neil, to be back in charge on Fleet Street (RIP). So it's plus ca change. By the way, Sarah, with your position on Coldplay still open: the elitist New York Times is agin them, so you have to be for them.