Mike Dunn is no longer the head of sport at the Independent group of newspapers, after less than three months in the job.
Am I allowed the indulgence of saying we told you so?
Am I allowed the indulgence of saying we told you so?
Mike Dunn: rapid exit from the Indy It was mid-afternoon on Friday when the texts started to buzz life into my on-mute smart phone, with the messages often punctuated with exclamation marks, from senior journalists who would never normally consider using the tabloid headline device in their copy.
"People here are glad that he's gone," was one frank view from the open-plan first floor at Derry Street, where some were suggesting that Dunn, the former sports editor at the News of the World and The Sun, was "escorted from the building", which isn't usually a good thing.
Someone else offered, "The sports desks here probably did need a bit of a shake-up, but the culture clash of his tabloid instincts and everything that the Independent has always stood for caused a lot of tensions."
The website of the Sports Journalists' Association, which broke the story, quoted an unnamed insider as saying, "He’s been here three months and many thought he was a complete disaster. He is clueless about these kind of newspapers.
"A new MD’s come in and asked, 'Why do we need this bloke, he’s spending money like water?'”
We told you so 1: Dunn deals
The money thing was always going to be a culture clash. Dunn had spent more than a quarter-century working on often free-spending News International titles, while budgets are notoriously tight at the loss-making Independent and its sister titles.
Dunn was originally hired to help to revive the fortunes of the ailing London Live TV station. We suggested at that time that it would not be long before he gravitated over to the sports department, and when that came to pass within barely a month of his arrival, we wrote: "It is fair to say that Dunn probably has never had such skinny budgets at his disposal."
"People here are glad that he's gone," was one frank view from the open-plan first floor at Derry Street, where some were suggesting that Dunn, the former sports editor at the News of the World and The Sun, was "escorted from the building", which isn't usually a good thing.
Someone else offered, "The sports desks here probably did need a bit of a shake-up, but the culture clash of his tabloid instincts and everything that the Independent has always stood for caused a lot of tensions."
The website of the Sports Journalists' Association, which broke the story, quoted an unnamed insider as saying, "He’s been here three months and many thought he was a complete disaster. He is clueless about these kind of newspapers.
"A new MD’s come in and asked, 'Why do we need this bloke, he’s spending money like water?'”
We told you so 1: Dunn deals
The money thing was always going to be a culture clash. Dunn had spent more than a quarter-century working on often free-spending News International titles, while budgets are notoriously tight at the loss-making Independent and its sister titles.
Dunn was originally hired to help to revive the fortunes of the ailing London Live TV station. We suggested at that time that it would not be long before he gravitated over to the sports department, and when that came to pass within barely a month of his arrival, we wrote: "It is fair to say that Dunn probably has never had such skinny budgets at his disposal."
How much? Paul Scholes was hired as a budget-busting columnist So imagine the stunned surprise on rival sports desks when one of the hottest new properties in punditry, Paul Scholes, was revealed as the new signing for The Independent. And i. And the Evening Standard. A bit of a coup for Dunn, you may have thought.
There's no such thing as exclusivity in the modern world of newspaper groups, and with the cash burden spread over three titles, Dunn must have imagined that signing up the former Manchester United and England midfielder, whose observations had been so keenly followed in his first season as a co-commentator with Sky, would pay dividends.
But the rumour swirling around what passes for Fleet Street these days was that Scholes's annual media contract was worth £230,000. BT Sport, which snatched Scholes away from Sky, picks up the lion's share of that commitment, while the ex-player's remarks are scribbled down for the newspapers, which pay a portion of that hefty fee.
The best suggestion of the Indy group's share of the Scholes bill is £50,000. What has become known in Derry Street as "a Dunn deal".
We told you so 2: Relief columns
Previously, we said, "When at News International, Dunn had a reputation for being especially generous with some columnists – Terry Venables being notable..."..
The problem with old columnists is that they can be like the one in Trafalgar Square: a bit one-eyed.
Venables, who has not been in football management for more than a decade, was indeed one of Dunn's first signings in his new fiefdom. The sage words of the former Barcelona, Spurs and England manager were reputedly rewarded with £600 per column.
Also signed up for a column was another Dunn regular, boxing promoter Frank Warren. That's possibly an odd signing when boxing is not regarded as a priority for coverage, but it also presented other problems for the sometimes holier-than-though Independent titles.
When last month, following the death of a woman boxer in South Africa, Warren was frank enough to state, "I make no bones about it, I don’t like women’s boxing. Never have and never will", his column duly appeared in The Independent; but executives from the back bench on the sister paper, the i, ordered that Warren's column be pulled from their sports pages.
We told you so 3: Friends reunited
"How long it takes for Dunn’s regular camp followers to catch up with him in Derry Street and appear on the sports pages of his latest employers, only time will tell," we said then.
It took hardly any time at all.
Tim Allan, Dunn's ever-present right-hand man since their days together on Today, duly moved in on the desk, while the bylines of Geoff Sweet, David Harrison and Paul Smith - all reporters best known for their tabloid football work - were soon adding to the papers' meagre budgets' bills, presumably at the expense of other, longer-standing stringers.
Allan is understood to be on a rolling contract, "And they'll be rolling him out of the door next week," said one staffer.
An attempt to make the sports pages of The Independent and IoS more "poppy", will doubtless be looked back upon in a few months' time as no more than a bit of a bump in the road. An expensive failed experiment.
But Dunn's departure (followed probably by Allan's, too), will leave a couple of senior positions vacant, since Neil Robinson, the widely respected former head of sport, was shunted over to the night editor's role to make way for the tabloid twins. Whoever takes over will have a rebuilding job on their hands, to restore morale among the hard-working sports desks.
And that's far from being done and dusted.
There's no such thing as exclusivity in the modern world of newspaper groups, and with the cash burden spread over three titles, Dunn must have imagined that signing up the former Manchester United and England midfielder, whose observations had been so keenly followed in his first season as a co-commentator with Sky, would pay dividends.
But the rumour swirling around what passes for Fleet Street these days was that Scholes's annual media contract was worth £230,000. BT Sport, which snatched Scholes away from Sky, picks up the lion's share of that commitment, while the ex-player's remarks are scribbled down for the newspapers, which pay a portion of that hefty fee.
The best suggestion of the Indy group's share of the Scholes bill is £50,000. What has become known in Derry Street as "a Dunn deal".
We told you so 2: Relief columns
Previously, we said, "When at News International, Dunn had a reputation for being especially generous with some columnists – Terry Venables being notable..."..
The problem with old columnists is that they can be like the one in Trafalgar Square: a bit one-eyed.
Venables, who has not been in football management for more than a decade, was indeed one of Dunn's first signings in his new fiefdom. The sage words of the former Barcelona, Spurs and England manager were reputedly rewarded with £600 per column.
Also signed up for a column was another Dunn regular, boxing promoter Frank Warren. That's possibly an odd signing when boxing is not regarded as a priority for coverage, but it also presented other problems for the sometimes holier-than-though Independent titles.
When last month, following the death of a woman boxer in South Africa, Warren was frank enough to state, "I make no bones about it, I don’t like women’s boxing. Never have and never will", his column duly appeared in The Independent; but executives from the back bench on the sister paper, the i, ordered that Warren's column be pulled from their sports pages.
We told you so 3: Friends reunited
"How long it takes for Dunn’s regular camp followers to catch up with him in Derry Street and appear on the sports pages of his latest employers, only time will tell," we said then.
It took hardly any time at all.
Tim Allan, Dunn's ever-present right-hand man since their days together on Today, duly moved in on the desk, while the bylines of Geoff Sweet, David Harrison and Paul Smith - all reporters best known for their tabloid football work - were soon adding to the papers' meagre budgets' bills, presumably at the expense of other, longer-standing stringers.
Allan is understood to be on a rolling contract, "And they'll be rolling him out of the door next week," said one staffer.
An attempt to make the sports pages of The Independent and IoS more "poppy", will doubtless be looked back upon in a few months' time as no more than a bit of a bump in the road. An expensive failed experiment.
But Dunn's departure (followed probably by Allan's, too), will leave a couple of senior positions vacant, since Neil Robinson, the widely respected former head of sport, was shunted over to the night editor's role to make way for the tabloid twins. Whoever takes over will have a rebuilding job on their hands, to restore morale among the hard-working sports desks.
And that's far from being done and dusted.
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