Louis Kirby (30 November 1928–14 October 2006) was a
British newspaper editor.
In 1971, the ''Sketch'' merged with the ''Mail''. ''Sketch'' editor
David English was appointed as editor of the merged newspaper, leaving Kirby as acting editor of the last editions of the ''Sketch''. He then moved to join English, becoming Deputy Editor of the ''Mail''.
[Louis Kirby]
, '' The Times'', 17 October 2006
Early life and career
Kirby was born in
Liverpool and grew up in
Coalbrookdale. His first job was as a reporter on the ''
Wolverhampton Express and Star
The ''Express & Star'' is a regional evening newspaper in Britain. Founded in 1889, it is based in Wolverhampton, England, and covers the West Midlands county and Staffordshire.
Currently edited by Martin Wright, the ''Express & Star'' publis ...
'', then in 1949 he moved to
Bermuda where he worked at ''
The Royal Gazette''. In 1951 he returned to Britain to work as a freelance, then joined the ''
Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'' in 1953. He became the ''Mails lobby correspondent, then in 1962 became Chief Reporter with the ''
Daily Sketch
The ''Daily Sketch'' was a British national tabloid newspaper, founded in Manchester in 1909 by Sir Edward Hulton.
It was bought in 1920 by Lord Rothermere's Daily Mirror Newspapers, but in 1925 Rothermere sold it to William and Gomer Berry ...
'', and in 1969 was promoted to Executive Editor.
[Michael Leapman,]
Louis Kirby
, '' The Independent'', 30 October 2006 Kirby became editor of the
London daily, the ''
Evening News'' in 1974, and completed its transformation from
broadsheet
A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...
to
tabloid
Tabloid may refer to:
* Tabloid journalism, a type of journalism
* Tabloid (newspaper format), a newspaper with compact page size
** Chinese tabloid
* Tabloid (paper size), a North American paper size
* Sopwith Tabloid, a biplane aircraft
* ''Ta ...
.
Negotiations to merge the ''Evening News'' with its competitor, the ''Evening Standard'' began in 1976, but failed to make progress due to a dispute over who should edit a merged paper.
Circulation of the ''Evening News'' continued to fall under Kirby's editorship, and in 1979, the paper stopped publishing a Saturday edition.
The two papers finally merged in November 1980 to produce the ''New Standard'', soon named the ''Evening Standard'' once more.
Kirby was appointed editor, and made more than 100 journalists redundant, most from the ''Evening News''. He stepped down in 1986, becoming Editorial Director of Mail Newspapers. From 1988 to 1993 he was political consultant to the ''Daily Mail'', then until 2003 he was editor of the ''UK Mail'', a weekly news digest.
Personal life
Kirby was married three times, producing five children with his first wife, two with his second and two more with his third.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirby, Louis
1928 births
2006 deaths
English newspaper editors
English male journalists
London Evening Standard people