View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

Kelvin MacKenzie Telegraph.co.uk column axed after just one instalment

By Press Gazette

Former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie has been dropped as a weekly columnist for Telegraph.co.uk after just one offering for the website.

The column was promoted on the front of page of the website last Thursday under the heading "meet our new columnist". And it was described as a new weekly column.
But the following day Telegraph football writer Henry Winter tweeted: "Re: the Kelvin MacKenzie column. It’s a one-off and won’t be repeated."
The introduction to the MacKenzie column said: "In the first of a new weekly column, Kelvin MacKenzie has plans for the future of our classrooms, Masterchef and even some timely advice for student investors."
The Liverpool Daily Post reports that the column prompted a furious backlash on Merseyside where MacKenzie has never been forgiven for publishing the infamous 1989 front page THE TRUTH which blamed Liverpool fans for the Hillsborough football disaster in which 96 people died.
MacKenzie abruptly left the Daily Mail after just under a year as a columnist in July 2012, telling readers: "Due to my increasing commercial workload, I have decided to give up the column after today to concentrate on my businesses. Thank you for your time over the past year."
MacKenzie caused some embarassment for Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre at the beginning of the Leveson Inquiry in October 2011, when he addressed a Leveson seminar and said: "God help me that free speech comes down to the thought process of a judge who couldn't win when prosecuting counsel against Ken Dodd for tax evasion and more recently robbing the Christmas Island veterans of a substantial pay-off for being told to simply turn away from nuclear test blasts in the Fifties."
MacKenzie was tempted back to The Sun (the paper he edited from 1981 to 1994) as a columnist by then editor Rebekah Wade in 2005, leaving to join the Daily Mail in 2011.
MacKenzie's first weekly column took aim at teachers ("more in common with the dockers of the Sixties or the miners of the Eighties than professionals") and Masterchef's Greg Wallace ("he reminds me why I shouldn't go on WeightWatchers") – among other targets.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

Topics in this article : ,

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network