September 19, 2003

JONTY JUMPS

The Australian’s Jonathan Este, due to return to work on Monday, has quit the national broadsheet during his holidays in the UK and taken a job at the Independent. Which needs all the help it can get:

A much more obvious casualty is the Independent, which in 1993 was selling almost as many copies as the Times. Now its official circulation is about 220,000, though its true sale at full price is nearer 160,000. It is said to be losing about £10 million a year.

Jonty’s a lefty, but a fact-seeking one. The Independent has done well to pick him up.

Posted by Tim Blair at September 19, 2003 06:02 PM
Comments

Sorry. Click on Europe News in the sidebar of the link and the story should come up.

Posted by: ilibcc at September 19, 2003 at 07:14 PM

Ilibcc- Chirac's having a face lift? What both faces?

Posted by: Ross at September 19, 2003 at 09:49 PM

How come no one here is talking like a pirate yet?

Posted by: Bruce at September 20, 2003 at 01:05 AM

Arrr. There's many pirates about to be sure.

Posted by: Chris the Ninja Pirate at September 20, 2003 at 01:18 AM

Arrr, matey! (Still National Speak-Like-A-Pirate Day here for another 20 minutes or so over here). As a scurvy Brit seadog, I'd be jiggered if the bilge rat infested "Indy" (bless!) even sells 160,000 copies daily. Swagger my barnacle-encrusted hide if circulation didn't drop like the Cap'n's grog sozzled parrot within 18 months of the rag's mid-80's launch ("The Independent: It is, are you?" Har! Har! pass me a fine buxom wench, me hearties, lest I laugh myself down the bung-hole!)

Put it out of it's misery, and then let's board The Guardian, and give that sea-hag Polly Toynbee a taste of a lusty buccaneer's weapon!

Posted by: oiskin at September 20, 2003 at 10:00 AM

Looks like The Independent is headin' to Davy Jones' Locker! Arrr!

Posted by: the dread pirate scott h. at September 20, 2003 at 02:37 PM

Fact-seeking lefty! Come on, Tim, give it a go. Is it tautology or an oxymoron?

Posted by: Gabor at September 21, 2003 at 01:17 AM

I wonder how long Este will stay. From what I hear, working for the Independent these days isn't a bundle of fun.

When David Aarinovitch left the paper for The Guardian earlier this year, he commented on how pleased he was to get out from under the malevolent influence of the "fascist hyena".

I wonder who he could have been talking about?

Posted by: George Junior at September 22, 2003 at 12:01 AM