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When the News of the World lost out to Max Mosley over his privacy action in July last year — and was obliged to pay him £60,000 in damages — its editor, Colin Myler, could hardly contain his anger. In defending his paper's actions in publishing details of Mosley's sado-masochistic sex orgy, and posting a video of the shenanigans on its website, he said outside the High Court: “Our press is less free today after another judgment based on privacy laws emanating from Europe.”
Several editors and media lawyers agreed, speaking darkly of the ruling having a chilling effect on journalism. Kiss-and-tell stories, the paper's traditional staple diet, were said to be under threat. However, in the months afterwards it did not appear, at least to the average reader, as if the News of the World (NoW) had been too inhibited by the decision.
Gradually though I did detect a change of approach and, in recent weeks, it has become manifestly more obvious. The NoW of 2009 appears to have turned a corner. There are signs that it has cleaned up its act.
Myler, who is about to celebrate his second anniversary as editor, is running far fewer sleazy stories, preferring human interest material that does not emanate from the bedroom. Properly conducted interviews have replaced stories obtained by covert tape-recordings.
In place of those sordid tales that could be confidently labelled “exclusive” because no other paper would think of touching them, he is now publishing stories that rivals would be only too delighted to have. For example, two weeks ago he splashed on an interview with Jade, the former Big Brother contestant who is suffering from cancer, devoting a further four pages to it. This was supplemented by two investigations, one into a hospital's habit of keeping the bodies of stillborn and miscarried babies, and another on a company charging extortionate amounts of interest on loans to poor families.
There was also a page on misbehaviour by soldiers, a page on the conflict in Gaza and a spread on a runaway bride that was not in the least salacious.
Admittedly, there were a couple of topless celebrity pictures along the way, but the issue did indicate a clear change of agenda. That was confirmed on Sunday when the paper led on a news story about Jonathan Ross's latest radio controversy and concentrated its second spread on the split between Prince Harry and his girlfriend.
There was another spread on some dodgy training practices in the Army, a story about MPs' pensions and a page about cheating parking wardens. There was some celebrity sex, a boastful interview with Russell Brand acquired from an American magazine, and a very odd vice story about a former Woolworths shop girl taking to prostitution after being sacked. It was odd because she was not named and the pictures of her were pixellated to protect her identity. That was unusual.
Looking at the two issues together, it was tempting to think that this new-look, decidedly wholesome News of the World was the result of nervousness about the Mosley judgment. But I tend to doubt that. I think it has more to do with Myler's own sensibilities. As long ago as November 2007, he told fellow editors at a conference that he wanted to run fewer sex and drugs celebrity stings. He had, he said, informed his investigations editor, Mazher Mahmood — aka the infamous “Fake Sheikh” – about his desire to steer away from celebrity entrapment.
Myler said at the time: “I personally believe that stories about celebrities misbehaving — well, that's a surprise, isn't it. I think there are other issues out there that he [Mahmood] should be looking at, issues that affect the fabric of society, and we will see a bit more of that.”
Within a couple of weeks, however, the NoW ran a stereotypical sex-and-drugs celebrity sting on the model Sophie Anderton. It seemed as if Myler was saying one thing and doing another.
Then came the Mosley episode, of course, and a severe rap across the knuckles. I suspect that it strengthened Myler's hand within the paper and especially with his News International bosses. He finally felt confident enough to institute something of a clean-up campaign. That is not to say that the paper will never publish a kiss-and-tell, nor that Mahmood and his investigative team have been locked away in a Wapping cupboard. I would be surprised if Myler can suppress all the seedy content but, for now, the sting has been taken out of the News of the World.
What will be fascinating, of course, is the reader reaction, though sales trends are going to be masked by promotional giveaways. Over the past two weeks readers have been able to obtain free Life on Mars DVDs, and there will be extra episodes available over the coming six weeks. But the News of the World is so far ahead of its rivals, it can afford to sacrifice some circulation. Its average sale in the final six months of 2008 was 3.16 million, way ahead of the Sunday Mirror's 1.28 million and The People's 619,000.
The NoW's 4.7% sales fall in the course of the half year compared with the same period in 2007 was also a far better performance than its competitors'. So my hunch is that the Mosley judgment has not affected the paper's content. It should be seen instead as an excuse for the change that many fearful celebrities may welcome.
