Word: cudlipp
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Cecil King, the autocratic chairman of Britain's International Publishing Corp., once waspishly characterized his protege, Editor Hugh Cudlipp, as "a very good first violin, but never really cast to be a conductor." Nevertheless, when King was deposed in a surprise boardroom revolt in 1968, I.P.C. directors picked Cudlipp as his successor. Ailing I.P.C. continued to flounder, so Cudlipp decided that he ought to turn in his baton and, as he put it, "get out my Stradivarius." Last week the Reed Group, a major British paper manufacturer, received government approval to take over I.P.C. for $304 million in stock...
Aiding the Competition. As I.P.C. chairman, Cudlipp, former Mirror managing director, and erstwhile boy wonder of Fleet Street, was in trouble from the start. Rather than fire the 1,000-man staff of the Sun (formerly the Daily Herald), which had lost $30 million in an unsuccessful effort to win a youthful readership, Cudlipp last year sold the paper to Rupert Murdoch, an Australian interloper in British publishing. One result was increased competition for the Mirror, I.P.C.'s most profitable property. Most of the company's 13 women's magazines are losing circulation as interest wanes...
...company's extensive printing business is in the red, and the books division barely survived a bungled attempt to computerize its warehousing and accounting operations. Faced with dwindling resources and lackluster profits despite annual revenues of $416 million, Cudlipp last month invited Reed to step in rather than let I.P.C. fall prey to unwanted takeover. Reed has long had close ties with I.P.C., which at one time owned 44% of the paper company's stock. In 1963, Cecil King himself served as Reed's chairman. The present chairman, Sidney T. ("Don") Ryder, a former financial editor, came...
...market. Under Ryder, Reed's sales have climbed from $307 million to $677 million last year, and profits have doubled to $22 million. Now Ryder's primary job will be to cut the publishing company's losses and mesh the disparate parts of the sprawling enterprise. Cudlipp will remain as a deputy chairman and editorial director. "There will be editorial freedom," says Ryder, "but if somebody goes berserk and the profits of the group are threatened, we will intervene...
...discussed the episode. "If I do, it will look as if I was caught with my hand in the till." Expecting his refusal, the board then dismissed him outright. He was not exactly penitent. "I think it is interesting," he remarked, "that the Daily Mirror under Mr. Cudlipp will now presumably switch over support to the Labor Party just in time to nail the flag to the mast of the ship as it goes down. I think it is a mistake. He presumably does not." Replied Cudlipp: "The most endearing aspect of Cecil's complex character was always...