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He transformed the paper into a brash sharp read for the aspiring executive

He transformed the paper into a brash, sharp read for the aspiring executive. But, with daily sales down to 550,000 within months, 400,000 lower than projected, Today ran into severe financial trouble and was sold in a pounds 24m deal to Tiny Rowland’s Lonhro in June 1986.In June 1987, with circulation at just 300,000, Rupert Murdoch bought the paper in a pounds 40m deal and installed as editor David Montgomery, editor of the News of the World. It was chaos and pandemonium come launch time.”On day one, Mr MacArthur said the paper sold more than 1 million copies and could have sold 3 million. Others, like the London Daily News and the Sunday Correspondent, failed.”There was a tremendous sense of optimism before the launch,” Michael Williams, a former Today features editor, recalled. “It was to have been a truly independent, classless newspaper using the latest in technology to produce a clean, colour newspaper with a USA Today style of presentation But we weren’t ready Shah set a premature deadline .. the staff couldn’t cope with the technology. As it appeared on the front page, however, the colour was smudged.”It was to have been a technological dream, but it turned into a nightmare for Mr MacArthur and Eddy Shah, the Warrington newspaper proprietor who broke the union stranglehold over print production and launched the first new national newspaper in decades.Production free from the interference of unions and press barons and direct inputting by journalists was to have been the future On the back of the dream came other newspapers Some, like the Independent, survived. scanner machine, the first time that computer technology had been used to transmit new pictures from Australia, where the Queen was on tour, to Britain.

The greatest betrayal was the quality of the colour, the great promise of Today We had a genuinely historic picture of the Queen It had been transmitted in seconds down a telephone line … Computer failures dogged production; the new technology that was to have made the newspaper more up-to-the-minute than any other in history was not working; and, of course, the colour printing disaster that was to have become the hallmark of Today was only then being conceived.
Recalling the launch later, Mr MacArthur wrote: “As they left the party celebrating the launch, most staff knew in their hearts that the paper was disappointing…. It was indeed an achievement that Today came out at all that night. “Tonight, we’ve reached the green fields despite the scoffers, the cynics and fair weather friends It’s a magnificent achievement by all of you,” he said.

As the world’s first seven-day electronic newspaper was being put to bed on 3 March 1986, its editor, Brian MacArthur, gathered his exhausted staff together and thanked them. “It will become increasingly hard to make any money out of [newspapers].”. Profits from his master company were hurt by development costs at Star-TV, the Asian satellite broadcasting company.The UK newspaper industry anticipates much more action in coming months. In particular, speculation over the future of the ailing Express titles intensified yesterday. Media analysts expect Lord Stevens, chairman of United News and Media, either to sell the newspapers or to invest fresh funds to improve their chances of competing against the rival Mail titles. The end of the price war will make it easier for him to find funds for the needed investment.While shares of all the publicly quoted newspaper companies rose yesterday, analysts warned that the long-term problems remained.”This is a declining industry,” one media analyst said.