Events | 2009.11.26
Telegraph tough guy Tony Gallagher replaces Will Lewis as editor
Former Daily Mail executive with a fearsome reputation as a Fleet Street hardman is named as the paper\'s 14th editor since 1855
Since the middle of the 19th century, the Daily Telegraph has stood as a refined, if fusty, institution run by erudite former public schoolboys such as Sir Max Hastings and Bill Deedes.
That all changed when Tony Gallagher, a 45-year-old former Daily Mail executive with a fearsome reputation as a Fleet Street hardman, was named as the paper\'s 14th editor since 1855.
Gallagher replaces Will Lewis, who will launch and manage a new digital division for Telegraph Media Group (TMG) but remain editor-in-chief of the daily title and its sister paper, the Sunday Telegraph.
The promotion of Gallagher to the Daily Telegraph editor\'s office marks the final stage in the paper\'s transformation to a multimedia news organisation that is trying to appeal to a broader readership in both print and digital media.
It also cements the rise of a journalist who one former colleague said was "as relentless and driven as its possible to be" and a shift in the newsroom culture at the Telegraph titles, which are now run by a cadre of former Daily Mail executives. Others include the Sunday Telegraph editor, Ian MacGregor, and Chris Evans, the head of news at the Daily Telegraph.
Many industry insiders detect the hand of the TMG chief executive, Murdoch MacLennan, in those hirings. He was a long-serving manager at the Daily Mail\'s owner, Associated Newspapers, until he was hired to run TMG in 2004 after Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay bought the company from former proprietor Conrad Black.
MacLennan\'s arrival prompted a flurry of defections from the Mail to the Telegraph papers and a period during which many long-serving journalists left the titles. A former Telegraph journalist said Gallagher\'s appointment was "emblematic of the fact that the Telegraph has become a paper of process rather than purpose".
Since it was acquired by the Barclays the Telegraph group has moved to a new multimedia newsroom in Victoria, central London, and spent millions of pounds on its website, dramatically increasing its online audience.
Lewis\'s appointment as managing director, digital, indicates the importance the Telegraph now places on its digital division. He will head an "entrepreneurial unit" with a staff of 50 based in Euston, away from the company\'s main office in Victoria. Lewis will also oversee TMG\'s existing digital businesses.
Lewis, the paper\'s youngest editor when he was appointed in October 2006, told Gallagher he had got the top job this morning. The two men live in the same part of north London and drive to the Telegraph\'s offices together. Lewis had intended to break the news on the journey, but they parked the car after getting stuck in heavy traffic. Gallagher was eventually informed over breakfast at a "greasy spoon".
Gallagher is credited with masterminding the paper\'s coverage of the MPs\' expenses scandal earlier this year, organising the title\'s string of exclusive revelations and overseeing the Telegraph\'s presentation and reporting of the saga in order to maximise its impact.
He did so by applying a journalistic modus operandi imported from the Daily Mail, which is renowned for its dogged, even ferocious, pursuit of stories.
One former colleague said Gallagher "did everything he was told to do, asked to do and shouted at to do at the Mail and returned it back with interest" during a long reporting career at the paper. "He did all the things that a good old-fashioned reporter would do," added the senior industry source. "All the things that the PCC [Press Complaints Commission] wouldn\'t allow you to do now."
He reputedly worked so hard at the Mail that his wife used to bring his children to work on occasions so he could say goodnight to them.
Gallagher joined the paper from the South West News press agency in his early 20s and his commitment to the job immediately impressed Mail executives. Many reporters who worked with him said he worked diligently when he was on the road.
When the Sunday Times bought the serialisation rights for Andrew Morton\'s biography of Princess Diana, he was involved in the Mail\'s attempts to steal its thunder by revealing many of the book\'s central allegations before its competitors could publish them.
He excites very different emotions among the Telegraph\'s old guard, however, many of whom have left the paper since it was bought by the Barclays. "I can\'t think of anyone in our profession that I would least like to cross the threshold of my home," said one Telegraph journalist who left the paper willingly.
Gallagher was appointed executive editor, news, at the Daily Telegraph in June 2006 and imported some of the more brutal management methods employed at the Daily Mail, regularly bawling out journalists, according to former members of staff. That behaviour was tolerated at the Mail, but was anathema to many Telegraph journalists, one of whom compared the atmosphere at the paper before 2004 to that of a country club.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/26/telegraph-editor-tony-gallagher
