Economy
Tumult at the Daily Telegraph
Tony Gallagher descended to his office — defeated. The workaholic editor of the Daily Telegraph, widely praised for his role in scoops that exposed MPs’ expense claims, had just been fired. “I’m being sacked because I’m good,” he told his lieutenants. Then he pocketed a last Telegraph memento, a piece of the Black Hawk helicopter damaged in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s house in Pakistan, and walked out of the newsroom for the last time, while staff banged their fists on their desks in a Fleet Street ritual.
Losing one editor is not considered careless in the newspaper industry. Losing five within a decade is, especially at Britain’s most establishment title. In recent times the Telegraph has appeared to be in a permanent state of revolution. It has brought in digital gurus only to sideline them months later. It has culled some of its best journalists, the men and occasionally women who had formed its conservative backbone. On top of this, it is facing the biggest threat to its credibility in living memory.