The new editor of Finance Week points a finger at weak TML management, writes Jacquie Golding-Duffy
NIGEL BRUCE has been editor of Finance Week for 10 days now after jumping ship from rival publication Financial Mail.
Bruce does not feel he has to excuse his abrupt move uptown to the ailing Finance Week: “I had absolutely no choice.”
Days before he handed in his letter of resignation, Bruce and Times Media Limited (TML) managing director Roy Paulson talked about the Finance Week takeover. Against Paulson’s instructions, Bruce allowed one of his columnists, David Gleason, who was about to take up the reins at Finance Week, to write a farewell column in the Financial Mail.
In a dramatic move and after months of speculation and denial, Gleason took over Finance Week and is the single largest shareholder in the company. Bruce, who is now also a shareholder, said at the time of his disagreement with Paulson that it was his prerogative to use whomever he wished for editorial contributions. That brought to a head the already turbulent relationship between Paulson and himself.
“It was clear that I would have to leave TML at some stage as it had become difficult to work there with a board and managing director with no publishing instincts and no idea of the criteria to be used when making senior editorial appointments.”
Bruce does not pull any punches as he sits in his stark office, no paintings on the wall, surrounded by simple and cheap office furniture.
He first attacks Johnnic, the holding company of TML which, he says, has a “history” to it, one sure to overshadow the current board.
“The board of directors of TML, on which Johannesburg Consolidated Investments is strongly represented, never appeared to have any interest in the editorial quality of the newspapers or in the political developments that shaped them.”
Bruce is adamant that TML’s managers do not have their priorities in order. “Instead of investing in Financial Mail and Business Day, they chose to starve the business publications. What do they do? They invest in a popular magazine division and a girlie magazine [Playboy]; the latter of which has since closed down. None of those magazines, as far as I know, are making a profit.”
Bruce cannot resist picking holes in the stable that he was affiliated to for 21 years, 11 of which he spent at the helm of Financial Mail. “Solid management is lacking all round,” he says.
He believes that the takeover by the National Empowerment Consortium (NEC), headed by Cyril Ramaphosa, is likely to be problematic.
“The problems are already beginning to loom … We have a chairman [Vaughn Bray] and an managing director [Paulson] who form a cosy cabal. We will have to see whom the board decides to appoint as managing director after Paulson retires. Also, the pending Financial Times/ Pearsons Group deal is an issue of dissent,” he says.
Bruce argues that “at no point” did the NEC talk to him about its feelings regarding editorial independence. “For over a year, no one came to discuss the issue which concerned all TML editors.”
Bruce was involved in drafting an editorial charter long before the deal was concluded in an effort to “preserve the traditions of all the newspapers”.
“Only through strong shareholding can the traditions be preserved,” he says, adding that that is lacking in the current board’s composition.
Bruce does not seem to be liked by many colleagues in his profession. When talking to him you can see why. He comes across as brash, pompous and a strong contender for the “I am always right” award. If he can help it, he does not hand out compliments. He has the following to say about two key people who are the new owners of TML.
On the chairman of Johnnic, Ramaphosa, he says: “He may be a good unionist but when it comes to commerce and business he is an innocent.”
On the chairman of New Africa Investments Limited, Nthato Motlana: “If you are not laudatory towards him, he accuses one of racism. He has not got the foggiest idea of what his business is about.”