Word: goldsmithing
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...much for L'Express Owner Jimmy Goldsmith, a dual French and British citizen, who is a devout conservative and staunch admirer of Giscard. The eventual election results did not help either. Last week Goldsmith sacked L'Express Managing Editor Olivier Todd, and, in turn, Editor in Chief Jean-François Revel resigned in protest...
...Goldsmith badly misjudged his market and competition. Because Britain is small and has excellent rail service, the leading London newspapers are distributed nationally. The Sunday editions (combined circ. 17.8 million) provide extensive national and international news, in-depth background reports and a wide range of reviews and entertainment stories. Also well entrenched are the Economist (U.K. circ. 69,000), TIME (British Isles and Ireland circ. 78,000) and Newsweek (circ. 40,000). Now! could not decide whether it was a feature or a newsmagazine. Its reporting never matched the newspapers', and its writing and analysis fell far short...
Before starting Now!, Goldsmith, 48, a flamboyant food conglomerate millionaire and owner of the French newsweekly L'Express (circ. 585,000), tried to acquire the Observer and then bought 35% of the nonvoting stock in the Beaverbrook chain, whose flagship is the Daily Express (circ. 2.3 million). He made no secret of the fact that he wanted a foothold in British publishing to advance his political ideas. By his own description, he was a "frustrated politician" worried about Britain's drift to the left...
That same month, incensed over a negative story on his friend French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, Goldsmith blocked distribution of his magazine in Europe...
Though appalled by Goldsmith's occasional intrusions, Now!'s well-paid (upwards of $54,000 for top writers) 80-journalist staff was crushed by the closure. Editor in Chief Anthony Shrimsley compared Now! to the Concorde: "A marvelous concept, marvelous design, tremendous crew, and everyone who flies it loves it, but you can't get enough passengers to make it a commercial success." As his London employees totted up their severance (perhaps as high as 56.5 million), Goldsmith saw virtue in defeat. Said...