Can Tony Gallagher add Mail magic to the Sun?

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/sep/06/can-tony-gallagher-add-mail-magic-to-the-sun

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Tony Gallagher is facing a mighty challenge when he moves into the editor’s chair at the Sun. He has to address both its fast-declining newsprint sale and its dismal online performance. It remains Britain’s best-selling newspaper by a wide margin, but the gap between it and the Daily Mail – Gallagher’s current berth as joint deputy editor – has been narrowing for years.

In August 2015, the Sun sold 240,000 more than the Mail. In August 2014 that gap was 430,000. And the Sun, which has long eschewed the use of multiple sales (bulks), depended on 11,000 of them in July and August in order to minimise its loss of over-the-counter sales. It would be foolish to see this as a crisis but by hiring Gallagher, the Sun’s owner, Rupert Murdoch – in company with his re-anointed News UK chief executive, Rebekah Brooks – clearly saw the writing on the wall. The Sun needs a bit of the Mail magic.

The problem is that the papers are distinct products, with very different audiences and editorial content. So how can Gallagher play wizard? Clearly, he has been recruited in order to edge the Sun upmarket. Less reality TV, more reality. But that will be some trick if he can pull it off because previous attempts to change the agenda of red-tops by making them more serious have tended to accelerate circulation decline. Gallagher might well note that the Mirror’s attempts to go upmarket, first under Piers Morgan and latterly under Lloyd Embley, were anything but beneficial to sales. The Sun, during David Yelland’s editorship, also flirted unsuccessfully with a slightly more serious approach.

A Sun editor just cannot afford to alienate the traditional core audience, which has grown used to a daily diet of fun and froth. They expect a certain kind of material: raucous, sexy and sometimes outrageously vulgar. Gallagher is none of those things, though he surely knows how to do it. He will undoubtedly inject enthusiasm into the newsroom. He is renowned for his drive and hard work. He is abrasive and will not suffer fools gladly, as he proved when he confronted staff who he felt were not pulling their weight as editor of the Daily Telegraph. So his love of stories may improve newsgathering, but news in the digital world is no longer a guaranteed selling point.

Overall, he must understand that it is impossible to translate the Mail ethos into the Sun and will know that he must tread carefully. He is something of a press historian and will be aware that red-top journalistic culture depends on springing surprises within a format that, essentially, remains the same. During the Sun’s heyday it did not merely report stories, it became the story. It sought controversy and, in so doing, was Britain’s most talked-about newspaper. In the post-Leveson era, the paper has been altogether more low-key. Gallagher must address that.

As for the Sun’s status, no one knows better than Gallagher that the Mail has gradually supplanted it as the national title that packs a political punch. It will be fascinating to see how the Sun under him deals with David Cameron. Gallagher’s Telegraph was often scathing about the PM, whereas Brooks, the ultimate Westminster networker, was once very friendly with Cameron, although whether that’s still the case is unknown.

Then comes Gallagher’s second major headache. News UK’s misguided strategy in putting all the Sun’s digital content behind a “hard” paywall proved disastrous. Too few people agreed to pay £7.99 a month for the privilege of online access and the paper found itself falling way behind as rival sites, notably the Mail and the Mirror, built up audiences in their millions. As panic set in, doors and windows in the wall were opened, and lots of content is now available free.

Despite the advantages of being able to deliver sport clips to mobile phones, the website is anything but reader-friendly and still anchored too closely to the newsprint version. It will require a big revamp to make it more appealing. It is often overlooked that Gallagher played a key role in the formation of Mail Online, so he has that experience to draw on. What will count, of course, are resources and management support.

Finally, there is the other overarching problem that has faced all Sun editors: dealing with the boss or, in his case, bosses. Murdoch has never made any secret of calling the tune at the Sun. Brooks, having done the editor’s job before, has firm views about what works and what doesn’t. So Gallagher will find that they are looking over his shoulder on a daily basis. Arguably, that will be the greatest hazard of all.