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Hugh Cudlipp

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The Right Honourable
The Lord Cudlipp
OBE
Born
Hubert Kinsman Cudlipp

(1913-08-28)28 August 1913
Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales
Died17 May 1998(1998-05-17) (aged 84)
Chichester, West Sussex, England
NationalityWelsh
EducationHoward Gardens High School
Occupation(s)Journalist, Editor, Publisher
EmployerDaily Mirror (1950s & 1960s)
Known forChairman, Mirror Group (1963–1967)
Chairman, International Publishing Corporation (1968–1973)
TitleBaron Cudlipp
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1936; died 1938)​
​
​
(m. 1945; died 1962)​
​
(m. 1963)​
Parent(s)William Christopher Cudlipp and Bessie Amelia (née Kinsman)
RelativesPercy Cudlipp (brother)
Reginald Cudlipp (brother)

Hubert Kinsman Cudlipp, Baron Cudlipp, OBE (28 August 1913 – 17 May 1998), was a Welsh journalist and newspaper editor noted for his work on the Daily Mirror in the 1950s and 1960s. He served as chairman of the Mirror Group group of newspapers from 1963 to 1967, and the chairman of the International Publishing Corporation from 1968 to 1973.

Life and career

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Hugh Cudlipp was born in Cardiff, the youngest of three sons of William Christopher Cudlipp, a traveling salesman, and Bessie Amelia, née Kinsman.[1][2][3] He left the Howard Gardens High School for boys (later Howardian High School) at the age of fourteen, working for a number of short-lived local newspapers before transferring at the age of sixteen to Manchester and a job on the Manchester Evening Chronicle. In 1932, aged nineteen, he moved to London to take up a position as features editor of the Sunday Chronicle. In 1935, he joined the staff of the Daily Mirror.[4]

He was editor of the Sunday Pictorial (later renamed the Sunday Mirror) from 1937 to 1940 and 1946 to 1949. Between these two periods, he saw war service with the Royal Sussex Regiment, and was involved in the First Battle of El Alamein.[3] He was head of the army newspaper unit for the Mediterranean from 1943 to 1946, and oversaw the launch of a British forces' paper, Union Jack,[3] modelled on the US Stars and Stripes. He thereafter returned to the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Pictorial until 1949; when owing to disagreements with his then boss, Harry Guy Bartholomew, he left to take the post of managing editor of the Sunday Express for a two-year stint. By 1951, Bartholomew had left, replaced by Cecil King, who reappointed Cudlipp, and with whom Cudlipp enjoyed a good working relationship for many years.[4]

In 1952, Cudlipp was made Editorial Director of the Sunday Pictorial and the Daily Mirror, in the period in which the latter sustained its position as one of the best-selling of British newspapers. Roy Greenslade identifies Cudlipp as the mastermind of the paper's editorial formula, responsible for design, choice of campaigns, gimmicks, stunts, and author of iconic headlines.[5]

Cudlipp was Chairman of the Mirror Group of newspapers from 1963 to 1967, where he oversaw the 1964 launch, as a broadsheet, of The Sun. Intended to replace the failing Daily Herald, the choice of format was to prevent it encroaching on Daily Mirror sales.[4] The paper was not successful and, in 1969, was sold to Rupert Murdoch, who turned it into a tabloid imitator of and competitor to the Daily Mirror; by 1978, it was outselling the Mirror.

From 1968 to his retirement in 1973, he was Chairman of the International Publishing Corporation. His brothers Percy Cudlipp and Reginald Cudlipp were also national newspaper editors.

Cudlipp was knighted in 1973 and created Baron Cudlipp, of Aldingbourne in the County of West Sussex in 1974. Initially a Labour peer, he joined the nascent Social Democratic Party in 1981.

In 1974, director/producer John Goldschmidt made the documentary film Telling It Like It Is: Cudlipp's Crusade, featuring Hugh Cudlipp about the "state of the nation", for ATV.[6] The IBA[7] insisted that the film was withdrawn from transmission so as not to conflict with legislation on broadcasting in periods just before general elections.[8] The script of the film was instead published in sections by several newspapers. The film was finally transmitted on ITV after the election.

Personal life and death

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His first wife was Edith Parnell, who, in 1929, as a 16 year old schoolgirl, became the second person (and youngest person at the time) to swim across the Bristol Channel from Penarth to Weston-super-Mare.[9] They married in 1936, although the marriage was not a success as she was simultaneously in love with Tom Darlow, editor of John Bull and kept up an affair with him.[10] She died on 13 November 1938,[11] aged 25, after complications from a Caesarean section in a Harley Street clinic.[10]

His second wife, Eileen Ascroft, whom he married in 1945, died in 1962.[3][12] The following year, he married Joan Latimer Hyland, who had been editor of the Woman's Mirroruntil their marriage; she died in August 2017.[13]

Death

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Cudlipp died on 17 May 1998, aged 84, at his home in Chichester, West Sussex. He had been suffering from lung cancer.[14]

Legacy

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After his death, his widow Joan joined with former colleagues from the British press to found the Cudlipp Trust with the aim of "education and furthering the interests and standing of journalism".[15] The trust organises the annual Hugh Cudlipp Lecture and student journalism prize.[13]

Between 1999 and 2004, the lecture was given at the London Press Club, then between 2005 and 2015, it was hosted at the London College of Communication. It returned to the London Press Club in 2016. Delivering the 2005 lecture, Michael Grade, the then Chairman of the BBC, described Cudlipp as "one of the giants of British journalism and one of its greatest editors."[16]

The British Press Awards gives an annual "Hugh Cudlipp Award".[17]

Hugh Cudlipp Lecture

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The speakers for each year are as follows:

Publications by Cudlipp

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  • Publish and be Damned: The Astonishing Story of the "Daily Mirror" (1953)
  • At Your Peril: A mid-century view of the exciting changes of the Press in Britain, and a press view of the exciting changes of mid-century (1962)
  • Walking on the Water (1976) – an autobiography
  • The Prerogative of the Harlot: Press Barons and Power (1980) – about William Randolph Hearst, Northcliffe, Rothermere the First, Henry Robinson Luce and Beaverbrook
  • Cudlipp and be Damned! A 'British Journalism Review' collection of writing by Hugh Cudlipp to celebrate the centenary of the 'Daily Mirror' on 2 November 2003 (2003) – posthumous

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography remarks that Publish and be Damned and At Your Peril were rumoured to be ghosted works.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2005-2008, ed. Lawrence Goldman, 2013, p. 274
  2. ^ The New York Times Biographical Service, vol. 29, New York Times, Arno Press, 1998, p. 764
  3. ^ a b c d Griffiths, Dennis, ed. (1992). The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422–1992. London & Basingstoke: Macmillan. pp. 178–79.
  4. ^ a b c d Howard, Anthony (2004). "Cudlipp, Hubert Kinsman (Hugh), Baron Cudlipp (1913–1998), journalist and publishing executive". In Howard, Anthony (ed.). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/69790. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. ^ Roy Greenslade, "Why all journalists should read Cudlipp's Publish and be Damned!", The Guardian, 8 December 2009
  6. ^ Telling It Like It Is: Cudlipp's Crusade, BFI Film & TV Database
  7. ^ "Be Damned If You Publish", New Law Journal, vol.124, No.5666, 19 September 1974, p. 853
  8. ^ Transmission dates: Telling It Like It Is: Cudlipp's Crusade, BFI Film & TV Database
  9. ^ BookOxygen Wonder Girls by Catherine Jones Archived 6 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ a b Ruth Dudley Edwards (2013). Newspapermen: Hugh Cudlipp, Cecil Harmsworth King and the Glory Days of Fleet Street. Random House. pp. 131–132. ISBN 978-1-4464-8563-7.
  11. ^ 'Deaths', Western Mail, 14 November 1938.
  12. ^ "Miss Eileen Ascroft". The Times. 30 April 1962. (subscription required)
  13. ^ a b Greenslade, Roy (16 August 2017). "Lady Cudlipp obituary". The Guardian.
  14. ^ Notice of death of Hugh Cudlipp, Independent.co.uk. Accessed 3 January 2023.
  15. ^ "THE HUGH CUDLIPP TRUST :: OpenCharities". opencharities.org. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  16. ^ Michael Grade, Making the important interesting: BBC journalism in the 21st Century – The Cudlipp Lecture, London College of Communications, 24 January 2005
  17. ^ Press Gazette, Roll of Honour Archived 16 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 24 July 2011
  18. ^ "BBC – Press Office – Michael Grade Hugh Cudlipp Lecture". BBC. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  19. ^ "Andrew Marr to deliver Cudlipp lecture – Journalism News from HoldtheFrontPage". HoldTheFrontPage. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  20. ^ "Mail editor slams 'Orwellian' BBC". BBC News. 23 January 2007. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  21. ^ "Alastair Campbell: The Cudlipp Lecture". The Independent. 29 January 2008. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  22. ^ "Cudlipp lecture: Sun editor Rebekah Wade's full speech | Press Gazette". www.pressgazette.co.uk. Archived from the original on 26 March 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  23. ^ Rusbridger, Alan; Wells, Matt; Gallagher, y (25 January 2010). "Video: Alan Rusbridger on the future of digital media". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  24. ^ Lionel Barber : Annual Hugh Cudlipp Lecture 2011 : London College of Communication, archived from the original on 15 March 2016, retrieved 22 October 2015
  25. ^ Jon Snow : Annual Hugh Cudlipp Lecture 2012 : London College of Communication, archived from the original on 14 December 2021, retrieved 22 October 2015
  26. ^ "Sir Harry Evans : Annual Hugh Cudlipp Lecture 2013 : London College of Communication". www.pressgazette.co.uk. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  27. ^ Sir Harry Evans: Annual Hugh Cudlipp Lecture 2013: London College of Communication, archived from the original on 14 December 2021, retrieved 22 October 2015
  28. ^ "David Walsh on Lance Armstrong: My battle for truth about his doping was worth it". mirror. 28 January 2014. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  29. ^ London College of Communication's Annual Hugh Cudlipp Lecture, archived from the original on 10 March 2016, retrieved 22 October 2015
  30. ^ "Hugh Cudlipp Lecture: Students scoop journalism award with Scots Independence referendum video". mirror. 3 February 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  31. ^ "Kevin Maguire to give the Hugh Cudlipp Lecture in 2016". mirror. 15 December 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  32. ^ Greenslade, Roy (15 December 2015). "Kevin Maguire to deliver Hugh Cudlipp lecture in its new home". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  33. ^ Bartlett, Nicola (30 March 2017). "Trump waging 'culture war' on the free press: James Naughtie's Cudlipp Lecture". mirror.
  34. ^ Harding, James (22 March 2018). "James Harding's Hugh Cudlipp lecture in full". The Guardian.
  35. ^ Osborne, George (8 March 2019). "The Politics of Newspapers". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  36. ^ Peston, Robert. "How to Save Impartial Journalism". city.ac.uk. City University London. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  37. ^ "FT editor Roula Khalaf to deliver 2022 Hugh Cudlipp Lecture". www.inpublishing.co.uk. InPublishing. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
[edit]
Media offices
Preceded by
David Grant
Stuart Campbell
Phil Zec
 Editor of the Sunday Pictorial
1938–40
1946–49
1952–53 		Succeeded by
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