Our newspaper editors are boring

Most of them are good editors, but they're just boring. What made arrive at this conclusion was not necessarily having nothing serious to write about in this ludicrous two-day week but also prompted by a book I am reading on the life of one of the world's most iconic newspapermen, Bertie Smyllie, who was editor of the Irish Times 1934 - 1954.

Now, Smyllie was hardly boring. Not only was he an outstanding editor who was respected and admired by all of his staff and therefore engendered some quite remarkable team spirit in his newsroom, but he was also as eccentric as one could get.

Sombrero

A short and extremely rotund man, he used to ride to work through the streets of Dublin on his bicycle every day, wearing a massive Mexican sombrero with a bottle of Scotch sticking out of his coat pocket.

Now why don't we have editors like that anymore? Frankly, from a marketing point of view, newspaper editors need to be publicists in a way and as such they need to be a bit more outgoing, a bit more eccentric. We used to have them. Former Sunday Times editor, Ken Owen, was hardly boring and some his peers will remember with delight the sight of him in his younger days as a reporter on the Pretoria News being carted away, upside down, in the motorcycle sidecar of a policeman called Sgt Arlow, after a particularly uproarious newspaper Christmas party.

The Star's Harvey Tyson was one of South Africa's truly great editors. He was an excellent manager of people, a wordsmith of note and a public speaker of the highest order.

He could also party like no-one I've ever known - his speciality being sliding down the banisters in his home without spilling a drop from his glass of J&B.

Put fun into firing

I think it is time that some of our more established editors start working on their eccentricities. I really would like to see Mondli Makanya becoming a lot more creative than just firing columnists over the phone. Like next time dressing up as Jacob Zuma in full Zulu cultural kit and firing a columnist at a public function by chasing him around the venue with a suitable cultural weapon.

And what about one of the country's best editors, Ferial Haffajee, of the Mail & Guardian backing up her paper's clear opposition to rising fuel prices by riding to work on a motor scooter wearing leathers and a picture of a depressed and deposed-looking Robert Mugabe on her crash helmet.

And talking of good editors, Business Day's Peter Bruce, has got latent eccentricity written all over him. For years now I have been expecting Peter to do something completely outrageous but he seems to go just so far and no further. I'm positive that if he went a got Tony Gray's book on Smyllie out of the library it would be just the catalyst he needed to make that move from good to great and who knows - iconic?

And Sowetan's Thabo Leshilo - now there's someone who has a fun character lurking behind his conservative business suits.

Most eccentric

Right now the most eccentric editor we have is Mathatha Tsedu, who sports renegade beard and wears baseball caps everywhere he goes, including formal functions. Now, potentially, Mathata has got everything it takes to be an editor in the Smyllie mould.

Come on now Mondli, Ferial, Peter, Thabo and Mathata - take up my challenge and bring some fun and excitement back into editing newspapers. It will also increase your circulation.