The Northcliffe Purpose

The "Northcliffe Purpose" is the new initiative intended to portray Northcliffe companies as local and friendly within their core areas, both too the public and too their own employees. Is it the latest two minute fad or will it change attitudes within what are now the mini fiefdoms of the Northcliffe Empire?

Regional managing directors now act independently of any substantive central control and the newspapers have been emasculated editorially by removing troublesome editors such as Mike Lowe of the Bristol Evening Post. Is it now possible to attain an ethos intended to revert the local centres back to all things “local” with a “family” feel when some regional MDs are so dictorial in their approach that it is well nigh impossible to retain or recruit good management teams to work with them?

Is the "slash and burn" mentality of Aim Higher truly in the past or do certain MDs still feel that quality is subservient to cost in many areas of their business?