An unexpected second chance working on new London titles

Nub News editor Philip Evans continues his series looking back over his 55-year career in journalism, many years of which have been spent covering East Devon.

When I returned home to run Pulman's Weekly News for Tindle Newspapers, having failed to buy it, I had no idea I would be going back to London several years later to launch a group of free newspapers in the capital.

I eventually had to leave Pulman's as a change in management at Tindle wanted to take the title back in-house. This led to me launching View From Newspapers with titles in Devon, Dorset and Somerset in the early 2000s.

We built the group to 16 titles with Pulman's eventually being amalgamated with the View From Axminster, but after the credit crunch in 2008 the business became very tough with advertising revenues dropping by around 30 per cent year-on-year.

Sir Ray Tindle, one of the giants of regional press, eventually bought the company and made me managing director, and as well as publishing our own papers we also handled the pre-press production for a number of Tindle titles, which provided work to keep all our staff in Lyme Regis fully employed.

One day I got a call from Sir Ray, who at the age of 91 was still working every day. He invited me to lunch to discuss a "top secret" project.

It transpired that he had decided to launch new titles in the London Boroughs of Chelsea & Kensington, Fulham and Hammersmith. Many years ago Sir Ray had owned papers in these areas and had always regretted dispensing of them.

With the rest of the local press suffering badly with falling advertising revenues and the threat from the digital media, leading to the closure of many long establish and respected newspaper, Sir Ray was bucking the trend and opening newspapers in the hugely challenging London market. The other media outlets thought we were mad.

He wanted to relaunch them under the umbrella of London Weekly News and he offered me the editorship. Despite the fact that I was past retirement age, I jumped at the chance.

Then Sir Ray told me: "By the way, you will be launching within two weeks and you will have no staff or office."

On the way home by train, my mind was racing as I formed a plan of how I would go about launching three newspapers in just two weeks with no staff.

The first person I called was Geoff Baker, who had returned to his hometown of Lyme Regis after working in Fleet Street and serving as Paul McCartney's PR for 15 years - a talented hard news man who also relished a challenge.

I had given Geoff his first job and I knew he was just the bloke I needed to help me get the titles off the ground.

Geoff was the only editorial staff I would have and Sir Ray had recruited one of his best advertising managers to look after the commercial side of London Weekly News.

We met the deadline and I was invited onto BBC Radio Four's Media Show to say how we achieved it.

Sir Ray hosted another lunch at which some of the media's top names were present to celebrate his new stable of newspapers. He presented me with an antique silver salver for my efforts.

Then, for the next 28 weeks, I spent two or three days a week going up and down to London on the train and a couple of days managing the View From with the help of my trusted assistant, James Coles.

My wife Jackie and I then spent all day Sunday editing the title as Geoff Baker produced exclusive after exclusive, some of which were followed by The Evening Standard and The Sunday Times.

We continued at this pace for another few months until Sir Ray was taken seriously ill. He finally had to retire from the business which he had started with a £300 gratuity after being demobbed at the end of the war.

He built his publishing empire without ever borrowing a pound, was knighted and won a place in The Sunday Times Rich List.

With the local newspaper industry still suffering badly, the new management team at Tindle Newspapers decided to shelve the London Weekly News project, by which time my wife and I were completely shattered.

But it was one of the most exciting years of my career and I don't regret a moment of it.

I have one very special memory. Sir Ray invited me as a guest to the 150 anniversary dinner of the South London Press, which he also owned, on HMS Belfast. The principal guest was Sophie, Countess of Wessex, with whom I had a long chat about our London papers, keeping the rest of the staff waiting for their lunch. She was absolutely charming and very good fun.

I owe a great deal to Sir Ray - he's one of my journalistic heroes - but I did not realise until many months after I received the MBE that he had written a very generous recommendation without which I may never been made a Member of the British Empire.

In one final edition next week, I will talk in more detail about the demise of the View From series of newspapers and give my view on what lies ahead for local papers.