PREMIUM: Making of a great editor – the George Palmer playbook

LONDON — George Palmer passed away in Palm Springs on New Year's Day from pneumonia. It happened 11-days after he was dragged to hospital from a tennis court. Palmer, who lived in California since the 1990s was 92 years old. His passing has sparked an outpouring of emotion in the country where he spent the prime of his career as a financial editor. In many ways, Palmer was the father of business journalism in SA joining the pioneering Financial Mail as deputy editor at its launch in 1959. He took over as the editor of the magazine in 1961 and continued running it until his retirement in 1977. Dozens of those that he trained went on to become household names in journalism and other fields, both in SA and internationally. – Alec Hogg.Welcome to this edition of Rational Perspective. Today, the making of a great editor, 'The George Palmer Playbook.' .___STEADY_PAYWALL___.George Palmer passed away in Palm Springs on New Year's Day from pneumonia. It happened 11-days after he was dragged to hospital from a tennis court. Palmer, who lived in California since the 1990s was 92 years old. His passing has sparked an outpouring of emotion in the country where he spent the prime of his career as a financial editor. In many ways Palmer was the father of business journalism in SA joining the pioneering Financial Mail as deputy editor at its launch in 1959. He took over as the editor of the magazine in 1961 and continued running it until his retirement in 1977. Dozens of those that he trained went on to become household names in journalism and other fields, both in SA and internationally. Among them Tony Heard, the globally respected former editor of the Cape Times, who's 1985 interview with the then banned ANC president, Oliver Tambo, earned him the Golden Pen Award from the International Federation of Journalists. We'll hear more from Tony and others in due course but let's go back to the beginning and how George Palmer arrived in SA in the first place. Let's take up the story now with Barry Wood. .George ended up in SA as a member of the Royal Air Force for training as a navigator on Wellington's and Lancaster bombers, I think near Grahamstown. As the ship made its way to SA, 5 weeks the food went mouldy. There was near mutiny at Mount Bassett and by the time they got to Durban George thought he had seen the promised land and he fell in love with the country. When he was back in England waiting to be shipped to Asia to take on the Japanese the Americans dropped the bombs and the war was over. So, apparently it was very hard in Britain to get passage back to SA. George's words, 'he wangled a bursary at UCT and then wangled passage on Union Castle to Cape Town,' so that's how he ended up in SA..That's Barry Wood, a long-time friend of Palmer's and a typical example of his protégées. For 20 years Wood was the chief economics correspondent at the Voice of America and his writing has appeared in many of the world's leading publications but let's get back to Palmer. Shortly after arriving in SA, in 1946 the lad from Thames Ditton became actively involved in the early anti-apartheid movement, which was spearheaded by the Torch Commando and that was led by World War II fighter pilot ace 'Sailor' Malan..I don't know that story of George's early involvement with the Torch Commando but it clearly was a powerful force in his development and he was active in that in CT. He was also active in the formation of the Liberal Party under John Kane-Berman's father. John found the notes of the first group of 10 or 15, in forming the Liberal Party and George Palmer's name is there. That must have been in 1952, something like that but George was committed against apartheid but of course, he wasn't a journalist. He did a B.Com and it was only when the FM was established that he was asked to be part of that creation and that was, I think in 1959, and he became the deputy editor and learnt to write under a person who had been sent out from the Economist in London. .An editor is made or broken by those that he has around him and a big part of Palmer's success was due to the unusual techniques that he used when hiring people. This was typified in the way that Wood got his first journalism job..I went in to George's corner office, on the 9th floor of the Carlton Centre, this is in late October 1974, and I gave my pitch and he listened. We talked and he said, 'I'm sorry, I can't use you.' So, I went back down the passage and Graham Hatton, who was number two or three at the FM. He said, 'don't take that – go back and tell him he's made a terrible mistake,' and I did. I said, 'Mr Palmer, look, I can be of value to you.' He slapped the table with his hand and he said, 'all right, I'll give you a six-week trial at R600 a month.' That's how I got the job. It was the biggest, professional break I ever had because it launched my career in journalism. Under a very strict editor I learnt how to write working at the FM for two-years. .During the research and the compilation of this podcast, I leaned heavily on Hazel Shore, George Palmer's wife, for 32 years. She's from CT. A tennis prodigy at a young age, and was injured at 16 so, she couldn't continue with it but she and George made a life in both SA, and California later on. She was with him when he died. She picks up the story on how his unusual hiring techniques made a big difference, not just in his career..It wasn't very different to being with people or having friends. George, having the brain that he had he was, I think attracted to intelligence. He was not particularly intrigued by degrees so, it didn't matter to him what your status was. He certainly was intrigued by native intelligence and your ability to respond, so he believed that if you had that basic intelligence and you had a work ethic, he could make it work. He hired people who weren't necessarily journalists. He felt he could train them. If they had the basic ingredients that one could mould and train so, he really thought almost anybody could do almost anything except maybe be a rocket scientist. They had intelligence, an ability to respond, to understand information, and how you responded to information that I think attracted him, which is why he hired some people who really had no writing experience at all. He would talk to you for 20 minutes or half an hour, and he would clearly be able to ascertain. He didn't win them all but I would say that he probably won 90% of the time. .Here's Tony Heard's view. .Well, they said about John F Kennedy that he had style, he just had style and some people who tried to stand for president, when they said they were like Kennedy people just laughed. George had style and he was always very well, if not nattily dressed. He could dine well, he was charming and those slightly oriental eyes that George had would be beadily going around wherever he was picking out good people, summing them up. Always going to their worst enemies to find out what they were really like – that's quite a good thing to do, and checking. So, I'd say he chose those people very carefully and they then joined a very exciting, small group where every press night, which is once a week on Thursday nights, and I was honoured to be there on quite a few occasions. It would be like a seminar on economics where you all work on the final product. A very small staff, rewriting, changing, printers screening for the copy and yet, turning out a work of art every week. George involved his staff in that and it was very exciting for them. That's why they stayed. I know there were breaks and that and obviously, newspapers have people who do come and go, but a very good team, including the chap called Dirk Karsten, the surveys manager, who was advertising. That started a tradition of some of the best surveys that this country has ever seen..In his recently published book, 'Between Two Fires' holding the liberal centre in SA politics, John Kane-Berman devotes a lot of space to the six years that worked under Palmer at the Financial Mail. Kane-Berman, who was CEO of the country's Institute of Race Relations for 30 years, recalls Palmer's unique management style. .Well, he let them get on with it but they had to adhere to very high standards, high standards in writing, high standards of accuracy, high standards of integrity and honesty. He set the standards. He didn't let them drop. He enforced them. You had to adhere to them or you would sooner or later be out. .Would you describe him as a micromanager in a modern sense? .No, I wouldn't. He edited stuff quite carefully and scrupulously but when he did so, he explained to you the changes that he was making and why. So, it was a process of learning. The other thing that disqualifies him from any accusations of micromanagement is that he generally gave you the opportunity to state a point of view on behalf of the FM. I wrote many Leaders for him. Whether he personally agreed with them all or not, I have no idea but that wasn't the point. The point was that you had to write stuff that was generally in line with the broad editorial viewpoint of the FM. Whether he agreed with each and everything that was published in the name of the FM, I doubt very much indeed, but he gave you the opportunity to state and argue a viewpoint and provided you did it cogently and fairly, and with due regard to context, accuracy, and so on. He published it, provided you argued your case properly, and you wrote it in a compelling fashion..Another of Palmer's mentees was Allan Greenblo, who later became CEO of the same media company that owns the Financial Mail. .I was immensely fortunate to have him as a mentor from the time I started with him at the age of 21. I learnt an enormous amount from Palmer, and I'm grateful for the time he invested in me..How did you get the job? .By pure luck. I actually walked into the FM office one day and asked for it, and I was fortunate that George wasn't there, or he might not have employed me. But I met Peter Duminy, who was the deputy editor. I started criticising an editorial in the FM, and I didn't know that Peter had written it, so I think he felt an obligation to give me the job. .All 21 years of you, it sounds like someone else I know, Allan. .It pays sometimes to be arrogant, hey (laughs)..It is an extraordinary opportunity to have been able to work, at such a young age and at such a prestigious publication. When you first met George Palmer did you take to him?.Very much. I was actually quite frightened of him. I started in the CT office of the FM and I actually, only met George after being on the FM for about seven months but where I was fortunate is that he asked me to write an editorial, which the story was right up my alley and he came back and I remember the comments I got from him to say, 'you seemed to have grasped our requirements remarkably quickly,' so that gave me the confidence to launch off but Palmer's methods, as I experienced it, was to throw you into the deep end on a three months trial basis and see whether you would sink or swim. He was quickly able to assess from the copy that you submitted over that period of whether or not you had potential. I think there was quite a trial and error amongst the younger recruits and those who swam are doing good and became specialists in particular spheres, whether it's banking, or mining, or labour, and they were respected authorities in those areas. .One of the appeals that I had was I had an American passport. I could travel beyond the places that were off-limits to white South Africans..Did you? .Indeed, I did. I spent a lot of time in Angola, in Mozambique, and Zambia – these were places that wasn't easy if you were carrying a SA passport to go. .Did George Palmer see that in you when he hired you perhaps?.I think so because he often sent me to Rhodesia. Now, Rhodesia was never a problem for an SA passport holder, but I think he thought, look, these are fresh eyes at least. This is a person who's looking at this from a different perspective, and I remember after those six weeks. George sent me a note, two or three sentences long; I still have it. It said, 'You indeed have made a contribution, and I'm boosting your monthly pay by R50.' .Fifty-Rand… That's about $3, all heart he was, watch the bottom-line, no doubt pretty carefully. Seriously, whenever I spoke to people who've worked with him, yourself included. It's almost as though he was regarded with some kind of reverence and that he was put onto a pedestal. Why was that?.Well, it was clear that this was an imperious figure, who did not tolerate any kind of slack conduct. You produced the work or you were out. People were fired. Michael Holman, in London, he made his career ultimately, at the Financial Times. He said that he was terrified of George Palmer. I remember George said to me, 'Pull up your socks young man.' Boy, I knew what he meant. .Barry, you went on from those early beginnings in SA to a glittering career worldwide. Did you meet other editors of the same ilk or work with any other editors of the same calibre as George Palmer?.I don't think so. That's the quick answer. Look, American journalism is quite different from the 'Fleet Street journalism' that George Palmer embodied and, by the way, I think the standards of SA journalism are fantastic. You don't have to go beyond say, Alistair Sparks. This is Percy Qoboza, but I'm wondering a bit from your question of editors I've worked with but first of all, I have immense respect for the editors in SA of which you are the latest embodiment. I've had editors at Voice of America, I've had editors at USA Today, I've had editors at other freelance publications but no, I learnt journalism proudly, I'd say, with George Palmer. George always said, 'never use two words when one will do – get to the fact, put it up at the top.' By the way, when George went to work for BusinessWeek in New York, and he didn't last there, he didn't fit, but he came away with one very powerful sentiment and that was, a fast read. Time magazine had pioneered this notion of a fast read. That means get the lead right at the top. Make it short, pithy, get to the point, and leave the reader wanting more. So, George was by far, the best editor I ever had. .High praise indeed but certainly not unique. Others felt exactly the same. Here's Tony Heard..He was certainly the finest editor I ever worked with in my life, and I was 30 to 40 years in journalism..Why do you say that, Tony? What made him great?.Just briefly, if I might, number one – he had a very engaging, pleasant nature so, when you met him you didn't get a scowl on your face. He had a disarmingly sort of pleasant nature but he was deeply tough beneath it all. He had, what I'd call, and there's no doubt his clarity of thought was quite remarkable. It was the academic train. The trained academic going into journalism and making it work. It doesn't always work but with him it worked brilliantly. He wrote longhand, by the way, and he'd write the clearest expositions of the budget the same afternoon it was given, and get it telexed through to his office by Vingers van der Merwe, who was a famous telex guy there in parliament, and he'd write it all longhand and he hardly had a correction. His thinking was as clear as a bell. He was very decisive and very thorough. He was independent minded and he had strong convictions but at the same time a very strong commitment to be scrupulously fair. Now, we all know that you can be fair and not so fair, and you can sound fair, but not be fair. Well, he believed that you had to go out of your way to get the other side. Sometimes you had to try harder to get the other side and then you take your bearings and make your decisions. Then that's where his courage came in, where he really took some decisions to run stories which really were legendary. .Do you remember any of them?.Yes, I remember a couple. I remember when, number one, he clashed with dubious financial people. One of whom claimed millions from him so, of course, the first thing George did was he just framed it in his office. That's what he thought about that. There were quite a lot of major financial scandals in those days. There was a thing called Parity Insurance, Trans Africa, names that have disappeared into the past but it required enormous courage by a person like Palmer, and others in the press and I will mention Joel Mervis of the Sunday Times here, and others, to dig the stuff out, risk the liable actions. He also took on the government in a very strong way. He summarily, one day, in a Financial Mail editorial page-one, a cover story, he told the registrar of financial institutions that he was incompetent and should resign immediately. That took some courage. .Why did you all want to work for him? What was it about the man that attracted you or about the editor that attracted you?.He was inspiring. He demanded high standards so, you were always wanting to lift your game and I must tell you that there was hardly a stronger motivator than a word of praise from Palmer. We lived for that and it always added to the depth of your experience, your confidence, your ability so, working for him one was perpetually growing. .Tony, if a young journalist wants to become a great editor and you have this role model, not only the one we're discussing in George Palmer but indeed, your own experiences. How would you guide them? What kind of a checklist would you give them?.Well, I'd say, number one, every single citizen can be a great editor now. That's the big difference. It's quite remarkable. You can sit in a hovel and you can wow the world so, it goes beyond journalism but I'd say, and those are very nice remarks you say about me but you'll find my detractors exist. The beauty of having being known years ago is rather like saying, as you get older people think you are even better than you were, but thank you. I would say that the important thing is to rediscover the basic principles of journalism without becoming fuddy-duddy and old-fashioned about it. In other words, to take the best and the best is very simply what I'd call the Palmer recipe of checking both sides against one another, particularly if there's a controversy, and taking your bearings carefully. Then presenting something that is uniquely thought out. Not just a mish-mash of what's on elsewhere. Now, Palmer wouldn't make that mistake. There are other shibboleths that have gone around and are sometimes found to be vastly wrong or even concocted in such a way that they'll cause maximum trouble. I think that the sort of doubting mind of a good journalist is the first thing that a youngster has to develop. Then take pride and use a lot of energy in actually getting the other side of the story, even if you don't like it..George Palmer left SA in 1977, and as you might expect, there's quite a back story to that one too..When George, Graham Hatton and I think perhaps John Kane-Berman or maybe it was Ken Romaine the deputy editor, they went up to see John Voster. This must have been in the months following the Soweto Riots (of 1976) and Palmer and the others waited and Voster would not see them, even though the appointment had been scheduled. Palmer ultimately said to the secretary, 'Look, we've come all the way from Jo'burg, can't we at least shake hands and wish the prime minister well?' Voster came out and they did shake hands, but when Voster was going down this line he reached Palmer and pointed his finger and said, 'Palmer, you're an enemy of the State.' George in his telling of this says without any hesitation he responded with 'prime minister, you're the enemy of the State.' Shortly thereafter, according to George, the Special Branch went through the offices of the FM and it was then Palmer that said, 'We've become a police state, I want nothing more to do with it.' I think it was somewhere in the first quarter of 1977 that he took the job in New York (with BusinessWeek)..Quite a story, but who was this man, who struck such awe into some of the smartest minds in his field? .His office was such a mess, you can't believe. He was the most untidy person. He never filed anything. He always thought he could just call the library for clipping files so we had newspapers piled up in piles. He just didn't even notice they were there. If it was in a drawer he would lose it and so, it was all these piles of papers and articles, which were just piled up all over floors or whatever tabletop he could find – that was George because he needed secretaries, and filings, and clippings, and librarians, and clipping file people to keep it all organised. He did about four or five of those and he was so good. He just had a way of absorbing material, and I must say, being able to go to the core of the issue, which really was his absolute genius I think but that's a special aptitude that you have. I think he was able to do it when he questioned his journalists..Did he read a lot?.Oh, constantly. All the time, and he delved into newspapers. Don't forget, he came out of British schools. First of all, he was always a bright boy. He was always very athletic. He realised he had a good brain. George's mother died when he was 12. His father, when he was 16. He was blessed with a really excellent brain, good schools in England, and debating societies where I think he learnt to control and, also use a debate to get rid of his anger. Of course, there were trials without parents by the age of 16 so, it was a combination of events so, he was a magnificent debater. I had seen him so often moderating conferences. He was called in, and I can think of one in particular down here in the desert, a financial one. I can't remember who it was put on by, where somebody had fallen out and they said, 'George, can you just help us out?' He had a dazzling brain. He had the sort of brain that was able to eliminate all the noise and get to the absolute core of an issue. He had a love of language. He read voraciously. He absorbed things and he just would get to the kernel. .He would read quickly, absorb very well. He had an exceptionally fast mind and a tremendous capacity to absorb a lot of facts but then to draw clear and true conclusions, and a lot of that I think he did pick up from John Marvin in financial journalism because John was well trained in Fleet Street and really, knew his game. So, George had a lot of contacts at The Economist, the Investors Chronicle, BusinessWeek in the United States and elsewhere, and he used those. He would read any current thing. Not just the summaries or the reviews but he would get down and read them. He would spend a lot of time on stuff..So, given the esteem with which he's held, the George Palmer autobiography would have been a wonderful guide for editors but he never wrote one. Hazel explains why..Many people begged him to write the book of his years on the FM and thereafter, and secondly, at Business Week, when it was really in its heyday as a financial publication of some standing. George was forward looking, and I knew that if George started writing his memoirs, he would be dead in six months because George did not look in the rear-view mirror. That was not how he lived his life so, to write a book about the old days, looking back. He would joke that, yes, he would do it, but that was not in his DNA. It just was not in his personality to look back. .Okay, so no memoirs. No role models either?.That's an interesting question. We discussed Churchill a lot and he always saw the right man at the right time. Role models, I think he had great respect for John Marvin, who taught him to write. As he said, he thought he could write and then John Marvin, when they started the FM, blue-pencilled everything he did. I think he just had great respect rather than role models. He had role models as a young man but they weren't intellectual. There were three older people who he met and they were bodybuilders and weightlifters and he found an outlet for his pain as a child in physical training, and weightlifting. He was actually a bodybuilder at one stage in his youth. I really can't think of anybody that stands out. He had great respect for John Marvin. He had great respect for his FM team individually. I don't think he had role models that stood out to me, even after 32 years. He didn't have role models in the sense. He had people with issues and minds that he respected enormously..Okay, so there's no handbook, autobiography, or role models, but any working or perspective journalist can learn a great deal from the privileged few who worked very closely with this great editor, so let's hear what they have to say. .If you were telling a young journalist today and giving them a checklist in saying, this is how to become a great editor. What would you take from the Palmer play book?.Well, first of all, look for intelligence. Look for an inquiring mind and shape them. I don't think that George had much interest in those who had been to journalism school. After all, journalism schools are only 30 or 40 years old and my reflections go back nearly 40 years now but look for intelligent people. Then establish very high standards and nothing goes into the book, it was always called the book, unless it was something people wanted to read so, then you have to have people who are determined to find out what is happening and leave their preconceptions, their politics aside. Now, I know I said that George was a crusader against apartheid but that doesn't have anything to do with the collection of facts, let's say about the Group Areas Act, or the implementation of the Group Areas Act. Many of these heart-breaking stories of apartheid SA… It was simply a matter of listening to people. Writing down what they said, and then producing it in sharp, concise copy. George was absolutely insistent that the copy be easy to read or, as he later said, 'a fast read that was effective.' .What did you take from him that you applied in your career later?.The more I could have emulated Palmer the happier I'd be but one does try to sort of emulate that sense of integrity, and that's the sort of thing, which we're taught to illustrate. For example, Palmer always had a very strict, Chinese Wall between the advertising and the editorial departments. He would never allow an advertiser to influence an editorial, and he would never use editorial columns to pander for advertising so, he was completely deaf to advertising who would come along and say, 'we'll give you an ad if you write something about us.' That just never weighed with him. Another area was with the shareholders. At the time, specifically in the 60's into the 70's, the Nationalist Party government was continuously criticising the English language press and saying that it was controlled by Anglo American. In fact, the largest single shareholder or controlling shareholder of SA Associated Newspapers, which owned the FM, was Anglo and I actually had an experience where I wrote something about Anglo, which Anglo didn't want published. Palmer immediately insisted that I put the copy onto his desk and he published it that week. The consequence was that it actually cost Anglo quite a lot of money to complete the project that it had started. .Would you say that Palmer taught you stuff that can be used by editors today, and perhaps isn't?.There were numerous things. To depress, to be fair, to get to the point quickly, not to use long sentences and he also tried to ensure that there was a punching intro. To make sure that by the introduction he would really be enticing the reader to read on so, there were those basic lessons that are vitally important. These are always on the top of my mind in my own writing and editing other people's copy. It's also been obvious to me that to have a quality consistency, the editor actually must take responsibility, and Palmer was so good in actually editing every bit of raw copy that was to be published in the magazine. He would ultimately take responsibility for it and if it was critical or inaccurate, Palmer would stand by you so that would also help grow ones' confidence. .Well, he was highly intelligent. He was a strong personality. He was himself a superb writer, a superb wordsmith and craftsman. He nourished a number of us that were able to write pretty freely, within a broad context, and I don't think there were many editors that have all those attributes today. He also had political guts. He didn't seem to be in any way afraid of the National Party government or field the need to cower out to its threats. .He knew strategically how to deploy his courage. Some people use their courage like buckshot and they end up tying themselves in knots. George was exceptionally targeted, and like a rifle shot, he would plan something very carefully and disarmingly go about getting the information gathered by quite a remarkable staff of people. He trained a whole generation of financial journalists and others and then went for it. He had this way of when he fired something out there in the business community or in the SA journal, there was a huge impact, and for that, I think he goes down in our history as one of the finest editors imaginable..It is the wish of any wise man to remain productive, to be able to contribute to society well into their old age – that is another of Palmer's achievements and on top of that, he had a lot of fun doing it. .Yes, he was committed to tennis and he was committed to fitness. Palm Springs is a couple of hours, or three, east of Los Angeles, before you get into the desert. It's a very agreeable climate and his second wife, Hazel Shore, was a tennis professional so, I think tennis was a very important part of their life. They had money. They spent the Northern Hemisphere summers in Britain and in France. He was a very happy and engaged person and it was a great love affair between himself and Hazel so, yes..Did he read much?.Yes, he did, he read all the time, and Hazel tells the story that what brought George down within the last year was that his hearing had deteriorated so that he could no longer teach. Something called retirement learning, and he had classes of more than 100 people that he taught global economics and loved this. This was in Palm Springs at the campus of the University of California at Riverside. He was very engaged, but ultimately, his hearing gave out, and Hazel said that was a significant setback..He was constantly on the tennis court. He went to the gym. By the time he got to 90, when his wife, Hazel, took him to hospital. They said, 'what medication?' He said, 'none.' They turned to her and asked, 'come on, what medication is he on?' She said, 'none.' He got to the age of 90 with virtually or no medication at all, I think. He was just having a bit of trouble with his eyes so, he looked after himself and he fought hard as a very fine journalist, with a very fine team around him..So, what is George Palmer's epitaph? Hazel Shore, as always, nails it..I think if you want to know about George – he was not for sale. There are many a journalist, unfortunately, in the financial world, whom you may or may not know, who, in fact, use inside information for their own gain, and that is true then as it is now. Some of them you will know by name, but what I can say and what you can write, and I would love you to write this, George was never for sale. .Well, I don't know how we can better that to close off this edition of the Rational Perspective, our first episode of 2018. Well, it's a bit longer than the usual half-hour, but I'm sure you'd agree, the late, great George Palmer was certainly worth it. Until the next time, so long.

PREMIUM: Making of a great editor – the George Palmer playbook

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