Wade's world

Leaders knocking New Labour, features in dubious taste, even a one-day absence of the Page Three girl (sort of). It's all in a week's work for The Sun's first female editor. Mike Molloy reports

Rebekah Wade has just completed her first week as editor of The Sun. It's a bit early to assess the full range of her capabilities in that awesome role, but her clattering train has left the station and one or two passengers have already had their season tickets revoked.

Interestingly, it is now almost 100 years since Lord Northcliffe appointed the first woman to edit a national daily newspaper. The Daily Mirror was founded as a publication for gentlewomen on 2 November 1903, and Mary Howarth was put in charge.

You've never heard of her? It's not really surprising: Mary's spell in the hot seat was a disaster. Britain did not want a newspaper for gentlewomen edited by gentlewomen. Northcliffe abandoned the experiment after six months, having confessed in a morose front-page article how he had lost £100,000 on his brainchild.

I can't see Rupert Murdoch making the same mistake. Rebekah Wade has been around Wapping for some time and has a proven track record in the queasy business of producing today's red-top tabloids.

Wade has been reported in the past as saying the day of the pin-up had passed, so there was some speculation that the Page Three girl might be under threat, but the smiles and the nipples have continued to beam forth – besides, Rupert thinks it would be folly to drop such a national institution and hand circulation to the Daily Star.

Those foolish enough to imagine that Wade might begin her regime by defying the instincts of her master have no understanding of how the cunning and ambitious survive in Murdoch's empire. Anticipating the thoughts and desires of their complex, absentee emperor is an art form sometimes as demanding as reading the entrails of a sacrificial chicken. Most of those who meet Murdoch for the first time are astonished by how open, unaffected and plain-speaking the man appears to be. Where is the twisted creature painted as the Prince of Darkness by the implacable left?

The truth is, the left has always got Murdoch wrong. He simply doesn't want the kind of power that comes from politics, having understood from an early age that all politicians, not matter how successful, lose in the end because they have to give up office. Who can forget the Iron Maiden's tears as she was driven from Downing Street for the last time?

The key to Murdoch's personality was best expressed by a character played by Danny DeVito in a movie called Other People's Money. When asked what he stood for, DeVito replied something along the lines: "Capitalism. It's the game we play in America. Those who've got the most money when they die are the winners."

In pursuit of his own brand of happiness, Murdoch has become the most pragmatic media mogul ever to exercise power in the United Kingdom. He holds the British Establishment and the Royal Family in mild contempt, so there is little danger of Wade offending a friend of the proprietor among the high and the mighty. All he demands of her is that she keep The Sun the most profitable newspaper in the country, with the highest circulation.

But success, paradoxically, will bring its own dangers to her career prospects. Because, the more successful Wade becomes, the more she will be lauded and courted by Westminster and the rest of the media. That, in turn, will earn the grave disapproval of Murdoch. There is much evidence that in the past his triumphant editors were cut down to size when the plaudits from commentators grew too glowing. Andrew Neil has often mentioned how Murdoch hated his appearing on television.

The honeymoon period of Wade's editorship has only just begun. David Yelland left the paper in good shape, and time and circumstance have presented her with golden opportunities. She has received the nod to criticise the Government for failing to deliver the promised land. We all know there is an embarrassment of causes for a populist newspaper to embrace.

We can only hope she seasons her enthusiasms with a certain amount of thought. The deeply unpopular policies brought about by the liberal Establishment in past decades have placed severe strains on our multiracial society, and populist leaders thrive in divided countries. The Tory party appears to be in terminal decline, so if Wade were to follow the Daily Mail's example and equate New Labour with the collapse of civilisation, who knows what rough beast might slouch toward Wapping?

Until recent times, new editors always began their regimes by announcing piously that they were going to refocus their paper on "real" news, relevant issues and essential information. Mostly, they failed. Rebekah Wade said something different and, I think, more interesting. She said that she wanted the paper to be more fun, and that the way to achieve that was for the staff to enjoy themselves.

Now, anyone who has been near a newspaper office since the introduction of new technology is aware of just how grindingly dull the atmosphere has become. When typewriters gave way to computer terminals and the floors were carpeted, something vital was lost, and it was reflected in the papers. Hugh Cudlipp, the genius who took the Mirror's circulation to more than five million a day, always said newspapers had to be fun. True, he had a lot more fun than the rest of the staff, but the principle was there. Cudlipp also valued flair in his executives more than any other quality.

Does Rebekah Wade have flair? What is flair, anyway? Simply a talent for putting a new twist on events. In Saturday's Sun, the Page Three girl was dropped in favour of 10 small pictures of various women's bums. There was a cross-reference saying: "For another great piece of ass – see page 15." Turning to page 15, the reader found a picture of a donkey balancing a ram, a monkey and a chicken on its back. The headline read: "A big ass, ram and a nice cock (no monkey business)".

That was a rather grisly example of flair, but, to be fair, it may have had nothing to do with the editor. Perhaps it was a back-bench junior deciding to take advantage of the new-found licence to enjoy himself.

Mike Molloy is a former editor of the 'Daily Mirror'

Week one: Wade at 'The Sun'

The jokes

Humour would return, Wade promised. So a poor staffer was dressed up as a burglar with a "Swag" bag and sent to Lord Woolf's home. The better joke was her riposte on the Page Three debate – a half-naked woman captioned: "Rebekah from Wapping".

The politics

She made it clear on day one that New Labour could not count on her support. Her first main leader began: "New Labour have had a good run for their money – your money actually. But it's time to say we're very disappointed."

Bad taste

No slouch in the Sun tradition of leaping over the good-taste barrier, Wade marked the suicide of a man with a home-made guillotine with a mock-up picture of the death and a box on "World's 10 Weirdest Suicides". She also ran a "TV Lustings" panel with spoof television programmes related to those celebrities questioned about internet paedophilia sites – some of whom have not been charged with an offence.

Women in journalism

Wade is a stalwart of the group campaigning for proper treatment of women in newspapers. But times change. She is not just keeping Page Three. She seems to be extending it. Pages 34–5 last Friday had paparazzi pictures of a bare-breasted Penny Lancaster with Rod Stewart, her beau, enjoying some "privacy" on their boat.

Women in journalism, part 2

Wade ended her first week with a Page Three on bottoms, using the picture of Penny Lancaster's again and comparing it with the rears of other celebrities. So... she did drop the bare-breasted Page Three girl after all.

David Lister