Big news in Westminster this week as Tim Shipman – the man whose blow-by-blow accounts of the chaos of Boris Johnson’s administration were appointment-to-read material for everyone in UK politics – announced he is to depart the Sunday Times to become political editor of the Spectator.
On the surface, the move is a bit of a head-scratcher: the direction of travel for a career is typically to make your name on one of the political magazines before moving to a spot at a newspaper. But Shipman’s move is not believed to be much of a mystery – his new gig comes with more money, and nicer working hours for a man with kids.
It is also a significant moment in the ongoing battle between the proprietors of the rival publications – Paul Marshall for the Spectator and Rupert Murdoch for the Sunday Times.
Michael Gove was once seen as a Murdoch darling, securing the first interview with Donald Trump as president for a UK publication, which appeared in the Times. Almost as newsworthy as the interview itself was the fact, which emerged soon afterwards, that Murdoch himself had been present during the interview, looming in the background.
Gove’s availability on the job market once he left government prompted assumptions he would soon land a senior role within Murdoch’s empire – perhaps as editor of the Times. Instead, Marshall bagged him as the new editor of the Spectator. In exchange, the Times quickly nabbed his predecessor Fraser Nelson as a columnist. Marshall’s nemesis, and former Spectator publisher, Andrew Neil is now presenting a regular show on Times Radio.
Just as things seemed to be quietening down, the Times secured the Spectator’s political editor Katy Balls for a job in DC – leaving that vacancy for Shipman to fill. Hacks are unsure as to whether the Murdoch/Marshall poaching frenzy is at an end, but those eyeing a potential salary bump are hoping it has a while longer to run…
