Leith McGrandle was a newspaper editor and financial journalist whose career in Fleet Street spanned the best part of four decades.
He was born in Glasgow in 1943, the son of a scientist, educated at Glasgow High School and at Glasgow University, where he studied politics and economics.
A natural journalist with strong political instincts, his first job in newspapers was as a leader writer at the Glasgow Herald. Under the editorship of George MacDonald Fraser he was swiftly promoted, and at just 23 moved to London to become the paper’s Deputy City Editor.
In 1969 he joined The Sunday Telegraph, also as Deputy City Editor, working under Patrick Hutber. Hutber and McGrandle took the section to new heights, tackling the big issues of the 1970s: inflation, trade union power, the decline of British industry and the banking crisis.
In keeping with the paper’s traditions, McGrandle was allowed time out to fight as the Tory candidate the two general elections of 1974, contending the safe Labour seat of Oldham East. He took his defeat with characteristic dry humour and stoicism.
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He left The Sunday Telegraph in 1978 to become City Editor at the Evening Standard. By now a widely respected figure both in Fleet Street and the City, he made a big impact at the Evening Standard, earning it a reputation for driving the financial agenda. In a rare move for those days, he became the paper’s managing director before taking a similar post at its sister publication, the Daily Express.
The Express in the early 1980s — with its famous Art-deco headquarters in Fleet Street — was, if not in its heyday, still hugely influential, boasting a wider circulation than that of its ascendant rival, the Daily Mail.
McGrandle’s ability to manage the fractious relationship between the paper’s owners and its editorial staff prompted then editor Christopher Ward to persuade him to return to the journalism side, as Deputy Editor. Together they took the fight to the Mail, modernising the paper and broadening its readership.
Ward’s successor as editor was the chain-smoking, hard-drinking titan of Fleet Street, Sir Larry Lamb. When, in the midst of the paper’s takeover by United Newspapers, Lamb collapsed in his office from a big heart attack, it was McGrandle who saved his life, rushing him to Barts where he underwent an emergency bypass operation.
Despite his keen intellect — and a reputation as a disciplinarian who expected the highest standards both of himself and his staff — McGrandle also had the popular touch. One particularly slow news day in 1983 — with Lamb on holiday and left in charge of the paper — McGrandle took a call from his news editor: a wild cat had been spotted on Exmoor and a flock of sheep had been savaged.
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McGrandle decided to splash on it, offering a reward of £5,000 for anyone who found the so-called Beast of Exmoor. When Lamb returned, he wryly told his deputy that he had seen the story and that if the beast was ever discovered, then it wouldn’t be the paper coughing up the reward. McGrandle joked afterwards that he always accounted for the sum when drawing up the family budget.
McGrandle considered his years at the Express as his happiest in Fleet Street, where he’s remembered for his integrity and loyalty. In 1989 he left newspapers to go into publishing and he owned his own magazine business in the 1990s. From the mid-1970s up to his death he ran Westminster Forum (formerly Westminster Industrial Brief), an independent cross-party organisation bringing Westminster and business together.
McGrandle is survived by his wife, Jennifer, a daughter and two sons.
Leith McGrandle, journalist, was born on April 23, 1943. He died on February 4, 2010, aged 66