Zitter’s Commandments

To all of those naysayers that talk about there being no characters left in the media world, Greg Grimmer would like you to pay better attention to Guy Zitter.

I have often used this column to disparage the Daily Mail – you might remember the The Daily Heil or The Daily Hate-Mail? But it’s an easy target. It is pushing at an open door to all of you pinko, left leaning media types.

There might be a couple of Sun reading TV buyers left in Media Agency land, but the rest of us all read the Guardian (obviously via our i-Pads – but more of that later.)

However, if you have never met Guy Zitter, go out of your way to do so. I am fortunate to have known him for over 20 years.

To all of those naysayers that talk about there being no characters left in the media world I give you the Z Man.

Bold, brash, big headed and bravely going where everyone else fears to tread, Managing Director of Mail Newspapers, Zitter, has been calling the shots down in Derry Street since most media buyers were still in short trousers – and the years haven’t mellowed him.

So why am I given cause to write about him now? This month’s stand-out event was the Newsworks Tablet summit at the V&A. While Moses himself didn’t come down from the mountain armed with instructions from the Heavens on a Kindle, the assembled throng were still treated to the Commandments of Guy.

So here I present Zitter’s Official Commandments, as delivered with his trademark humour and exuberance.

“I will leave this business when it stops being fun”

What a statement. One only possible, of course, if you have spent twenty years or more at the top of the media tree, but a lesson for all of us. Probably why Zitter has remained as the leader of an extremely competitive organisation is his very sense of joie de vivre. Had he not been enjoying himself would he have been able to carry on being so passionate about his company?

“I will always try and make money”

Whether he is dealing with the corporate might of Apple and Amazon or dealing with the increasingly powerful media agency groups, Zitter and his team have always looked to do a deal.

He did hark back to a simpler time when he just put the prices up and argued over lunch until buyers accepted the increase, but you know he will still be using his sharp business mind to make money for his shareholders at every opportunity.

“I will always be selling (The Daily Mail)”

His piece de resistance at the Newswork event was to befuddle the excellent Torin Douglas with the statement that:

Mail Online will continue to be a POPULAR website,
The Paper will continue to be a MID MARKET leader and
Daily Mail Plus on tablet will be a QUALITY product.

Segmentation explained, who needs Kotler?

“I will always talk sense”

On the subject of the tablet corporate infrastructure, Mr Zitter was both astute and realistic. Unfortunately for him Apple and Amazon aren’t John Ayling and Mike Yershon and are proving to be more difficult to negotiate with than even the big media agency holding companies – but do business with them he will.

Zitter is no Luddite and understands the advertising economy of the digital landscape far better than some ‘more qualified’ business leaders. He understands and articulated to the Newsworks audience the basic premise that infinite supply of cheap impacts will affect web yields and he doesn’t pretend he can stand in the way of a simple demand and supply curve.

Those that I conversed with after the event – a mixture of journalists, media buyers, clients and rivals – were all left in no doubt that The Daily Mail under Zitter’s leadership remains a committed, tough and powerful competitor, supplier and business partner.

However, I can’t leave it there, especially as we are nearing the festive season, which makes me feel I have to share three final – unofficial – commandments:

“You will not eat my Turkey”

A fabulous story from the annals where a young John Scorah – then a media planner at Yellowhammer – was invited back to the Zitter Household after a Christmas drinking session and proceeded to eat his way through the contents of the Zitter fridge only to be chastised in the morning by his boss and made to bike a turkey round to Mrs Zitter who was “in tears at her loss”.

A Zitter wind-up of course and one that still leaves Scorah blushing twenty years later.

“You will vote Tory”

Bad memories of the 1992 election where I believed the opinion polls and picked the wrong place to be when the Conservatives got in for a fourth consecutive term. Guy’s ability to kick a man when he is down has never been more palpable.

“You will drink Krug”

Great memories of a St. Moritz ski trip where a young Olly Joyce, when asked by Guy if he wanted a drink, replied “just a beer” and was promptly told he would have to drink vintage Krug like everyone else.

Tablets may not be the sole saviour of the Newspaper industry but with leaders like Zitter the industry will always stand a chance against the digital tide of ‘progress’.

It doesn’t seem very long ago when I was in an audience with Tom Mockridge of News International. Pretending to be a proper hack I asked him slightly more difficult questions than I think his PR minders expected.

The event was covered by Chatham House rules so I can’t share my questions. But let’s just leave it by saying Guy Zitter is a stayer. He will probably still be in the industry long after I and others have been chewed up and spat out, but of course only if he is still having fun.

May I be the first to wish you a pleasant festive season. Enjoy it. Zitter will.