By: Dan Ehrlich Fired Independent editor Andrew Marr underwent the Fleet Street equivalent of resurrection after hearing that he was being brought back as editor in chief.
This "out one week, in the next" scenario was the work of self-made Irish millionaire and media mogul Tony O'Reilly, who recently bought a 90% stake in the ailing Independent for $50 million.
The former head of Heinz Foods, O'Reilly controls 70% of the Emerald Isle's national press through his Irish Independent group and now realizes a long ambition to own a British national daily.
Immediately after completing the deal, in which he added Mirror Group's 46% Independent stake to his own 40%, O'Reilly announced that new editor Rosie Boycott would keep her job ? but with Marr as her boss. Oddly, it was the same arrangement Marr had turned down when O'Reilly offered it to him in January. At the time, even former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, who's on the paper's board of directors, couldn't convince Marr to move upstairs.
Marr walked out, was fired and Boycott wound up running the daily and Sunday titles.
O'Reilly, a record-setting former rugby champion, was chief executive of Heinz USA for 20 years, while slowly building his media empire at home.
?(Today O'Reilly is reputed to be one of the wealthiest people in Ireland.) [Caption]
?(Ehrlich is an American journalist based in London.) [Caption]
?(Rosie BOycott, an editor who demands fun and games in her newsroom) [Caption & photo]
?(E&P Web Site:http://www.mediainfo.com) [Caption]
?(copyright: Editor & Publisher April 18, 1998) [Caption]
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