HARDING REBOOT
THREE weeks into the new
Observer
under the control of James Harding, how is it looking? Very similar to the
Times
when that paper was under the control of Harding, right up until it was “made clear” to him in 2012 that Rupert Murdoch wished him to resign as editor.
Back are the wraparound “poster covers” his Times specialised in – very effectively in weeks one and three, when Pope Francis’s funeral and Trump family corruption provided both the spectacular photo and news hook for such an approach; less so in week two, when a photograph from the Reform UK campaign trail proved not quite good enough quality to be run at that size and the accompanying analysis piece was somewhat underwhelming (except to Nigel Farage, who delightedly showed it off to his millions of social media followers).