Why I believe there are 100,000 people willing to buy a new quality paper

The editor of this magazine has asked me to write about a new publication I am planning. You may possibly have read about it. Two weeks ago John Gapper of the Financial Times telephoned me to say he had heard that several people, including myself, were proposing to launch a new upmarket national daily newspaper loosely based on Le Monde, and provisionally called the World. I could hardly deny it. I told Mr Gapper that we had not yet raised the £15.4 million we are seeking, and suggested that he would be jumping the gun if he were to set pen to paper now. Would anyone be interested if we were hoping to start a widget factory but had not yet got the money? Mr Gapper replied that the prospect of a new national newspaper was a matter of public interest, even if its eventual publication was not certain, and he duly wrote a report which was accurate in every respect. This gave rise to many other pieces, all of which have been fair-minded apart from one exceptionally mean-spirited offering by Andrew Neil.

Over the years I have often grumbled about the dumbing-down of the broadsheet press. Britain is the only important country in the world which does not have an uncompromisingly upmarket title. (I exclude the Financial Times because it is not a general newspaper.) Of course there are many serious voices in the broadsheets, but they exist alongside ever more lavish coverage of celebrities and daft pieces about animals. There was a time not long ago when you could hardly pick up a copy of the Times or Daily Telegraph without seeing a picture of David Beckham on the front page or on page three. Look at the recent crazy coverage of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!