The Observer: Tabloids must be free to offend
Sunday, 16 November 2008, 12:14
Peter Preston: "The right of the public – broadly, not narrowly, defined; Joe as well as Polly Public – to have the news they want in the way they want it. And those who seek to deny that right automatically join hands with Salisbury on the first Daily Mail so long ago. They say that only sentient, refined people like us – like me, like Max Mosley – should have newspapers that match their interests."
Observer: Are papers in freefall? Not if they innovate
Sunday, 19 October 2008, 11:45
Peter Preston: "Sometimes, amid encircling gloom, it's wise to set benchmarks longer than a week last Friday. Always, there are choices to be made – or not made. And usually (perhaps, maybe) innovation is its own reward. A Times drop of under 20,000 in five years isn't systemic collapse. A Guardian surge online that brings in more than 23 million unique users a month on top of a million-plus print readers isn't carnage."
