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Loyal and influential readers cancelling subscriptions is the last thing the world's oldest Sunday newspaper needs, given that Guardian Media Group is currently considering the Observer's future , with further announcements promised in the autumn.

But the decision to end Simon Caulkin's Observer Management column in June, and the paper's decision not to publish a letter signed by numerous academics and other business figures from across the world, has prompted just that.

Philip Whiteley, chair of the Human Capital Forum, who mobilised the support for Caulkin resulting in a letter to the Observer newspaper signed by over 60 eminent names, told Journalism.co.uk that many of the signatories are long-term subscribers who have cancelled their subscriptions.

"They are also highly influential - previously recommending the Simon Caulkin column to readers and students. So almost certainly the decision has cost The Observer more than it has saved," he said.

"We receive hundreds of letters every week and cannot publish them all," a spokesperson from Guardian News&Media told Journalism.co.uk. "In this instance the editor of the Observer, John Mulholland, contacted the addressee with a personal reply and the issues raised in this correspondence were also given prominence by the readers' editor in his column on Sunday July 26."

First letter unpublished by papers

The letter, sent in mid-June and now published in full on the Editors' Blog , claimed for the past 16 years Simon Caulkin had been a lone voice in 'exposing the shallowness and limitations' of approaches in management.

The letter stated: "We are living through one of the biggest crises of governance in history. September 2008 saw not just the end of Lehman Brothers but the end of 30 years' dominance of neo-liberalism as the guiding ideology in running major private and public sector institutions.

"The notion that 'maximising shareholder value' can be considered in isolation from society was exposed as a pretence - bad for business as well as for society.

"The mechanistic strictures of the dominant management orthodoxy, with its dehumanising notion of people as a 'resource', its target culture and its opaque lexicon of competences, outputs and so on, have wrought terrible damage in social care, the NHS and education, as well as in the private sector."

Caulkin had 'set out a coherent alternative, rather than merely channelling protest,' it said.

Journalistic sense?

"The decision to end the Simon Caulkin column makes neither journalistic nor business sense," Whiteley told Journalism.co.uk.

"It does not make journalistic sense because Simon was one of the very few commentators who had consistently warned, prior to the credit crunch, of systemic short-termism and high risk in the prevailing style of management. His view is now more valuable than ever.

"And it makes no business sense because it has had the immediate effect of several highly influential subscribers cancelling their subscriptions."

After discovering the column had been cut, Whiteley co-ordinated the letters of protest: "Within 48 hours I had more than 60 signatories, including Ricardo Semler, one of the most influential writers of non-fiction in the world," he said.

"We ended up with around 90. Many of the signatories are lecturers, and used to recommend Simon's column to students. The wider influence of such readership has now been lost. It is well established marketing knowledge that it is far more cost-effective to maintain existing customers than try to attract new ones."

Second letter threatens subscription cancellation

The first letter was not published or acknowledged, prompting Whiteley to send another letter at the end of June, this time signed by more than 80 signatories. In the new letter, the writers threatened to reconsider their relationship with the newspaper.

"The supporters of this campaign are not just any readers, but long-standing subscribers who have passed on the habit of reading the Guardian/Observer to friends, colleagues, children and (given the number of professors and authors co-signing) to students and readers also, but who are now reconsidering their loyalty," it stated.

Opening debate

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk this week, Whiteley said: "I find it shocking that The Observer did not print our letter, given that as a 'liberal' paper it would presumably oppose the suppression of dissent and debate in public authorities or major corporations."

The Observer's continuation of columns by comedians David Mitchell and Dara O'Briain futher angered him: "Many of the letter's signatories complain that The Observer is more interested in celebrities than the weighty issues of the day; and in breaking up the content into bite-sized pieces.

"Many formerly loyal readers feel patronised or ignored. It's interesting to note that titles that have not gone down-market, such as the Financial Times, Economist and Wall Street Journal, and have not been so badly affected by the downturn in advertising," he said.

"The editors of the Guardian/Observer seem to be insistent upon cheapening content, then wondering why they can't charge for it any more. They have responded to decline by guaranteeing further decline."

Whiteley is dissatisfied by a reply from Observer editor, John Mullholland, which outlined economic difficulties faced by the newspaper, and by the non-publication of the protesting letters calling for the column's reinstatement. A 'Charter for Real Management' will look to campaign around the column's cancellation, he said.

The Observer's readers' editor, Stephen Pritchard, gave the issue brief mention in a column mainly addressing the death of another victim, the TV Guide, on July 26: "Whatever is cut, readers will be upset, as the response to the decision to end Simon Caulkin's column on management illustrates," he wrote. Read the letters in full on the Editors' Blog .

Hat-tip: Private Eye Issue 1243,  August 21 - September 3, page 7,  for a story that alerted us to the protest.

A LinkedIn protest group can be found at this link .

The final signatories include:

Ricardo Semler, entrepreneur and author

Andrew Campbell, Director, Ashridge Business School

Philip Whiteley, chair Human Capital Forum

Dennis Tourish, Professor of Leadership and Management, Aberdeen Business School, Robert Gordon University

Susan White, Professor of Social Work, Department of Applied Social Science, Lancaster University

Su Maddock, Director Whitehall Innovation Hub

Petra Wilton, Director of Policy and Research, Chartered Management Institute

Joe Lamb, Emeritus Professor St Andrews University

Professor Jonathan Michie, President, Kellogg College, University of Oxford

Susan Scott-Parker OBE, chief executive of the Employers’ Forum on Disability

Professor Chris Brady, Dean, BPP Business School

H. Thomas Johnson, Professor of Business Administration Portland State University, USA

Professor Christopher Grey, Head of Industrial Relations and Organizational Behaviour Group, Warwick Business School

Mark Goyder, Director Tomorrow’s Company

Alistair Mant, Chairman, Socio-technical Strategy Group, Adjunct Professor, Swinburne University of Technology (Melbourne)

Hilary Wainwright, Co-editor Red Pepper magazine, Fellow Centre for Participation Studies , Bradford University

Ismail Erturk, Senior Lecturer in Banking, The University of Manchester

Charlie Hedges, Chartered Geologist

Dave Wastell, Professor of Information Systems, Nottingham University Business School

Professor Martin Parker, University of Leicester

Gary Kirwan, Senior Employment Relations Adviser, Royal College of Nursing

Howard Clark, The Systems Thinking Review

Jim Standen, Director, Lignum Quality Services

Professor Bob Galliers, Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs, Bentley University, Massachusetts, USA

David Davies, Director Didero Ltd

Nigel Nicholson, Professor of Organisational Behaviour, University of London

Clive Bone, Chairman, Institute of Value Management

GD Cox

Professor Anthony Hopwood, Said Business School

Alison Widdup, Managing Director, Better for Everyone

Fred John, Estates Officer, NHS.

Roy Madron, political scientist, UK/Brazil

Dr Richard Howells, Director, Centre for Cultural, Media and Creative Industries Research School of Arts and Humanities King’s College London

Max Mckeown, Strategist and Leadership Innovation Expert

Sally Garratt, Director Garratt Learning Systems

Bob Garratt, Visiting Professor Cass Business School, London

Andrew Sturdy, Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Associate Dean, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick

Dr Martin Parker Professor of Culture and Organization, Director of Research and Deputy Head of School Editor-in-Chief of ‘Organization’ University of Leicester School of Management Leicester

Dr Gordon Pearson, Keele University

Jan Gillett, Chairman PMI

Dr. Mihaela Kelemen, Professor of Management Studies

Ian Christie, Associate, Green Alliance, Visiting professor, Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey

John Carlisle, Visiting Professor Sheffield Hallam University, Founder, Cooperation Works Ltd and the Intlizyo AIDS Trust, South Africa

Morice Mendoza, editor and writer

Dr Olivier Sykes, Department of Civic Design, University of Liverpool

Ron Glatter, Emeritus Professor of Educational Administration and Management, The Open University

Bob Bischhof, Chairman – Vitalize Health Products, Non Executive Director – Henderson Eurotrust Plc, Member of Board – German British Chamber of Industry & Commerce
Dr Paul Hodgkin, Chief Executive, Patient Opinion

Alastair Mitchell-Baker, Director Tricordant Ltd

Adam Hogg, Managing Director, (Retired) Conquest Inns

Simon Hollington, Director, Leading Edge Personal Development Ltd

Dr Philip McGovern, Programme Leader, Technology Management Programmes, Institute of Technology, Tallaght, Dublin, Republic of Ireland

Neela Bettridge, Founding Partner, Article 13

John Orsmond, Chairman Data Vantage Group

Peter Medway

Paul H Ray, sociologist, USA

Tim Pidsley, director Tricordant, New Zealand

Dr Timothy Wadsworth, NHS

Dr Bruce Tofield, University of East Anglia

Professor Tom Keenoy, The University of Leicester School of Management

Bill Cooke, Professor of Management and Society, Lancaster University Management School

Dr Leslie Budd AcSS MCIT MCILT, Reader in Social Enterprise, Open University

Ken Starkey, Professor of Management and Organisational Learning, Nottingham University Business School

Kieran Doyle, General Manager Production at Sulzer Pumps UK Ltd

Dr Luke Mitcheson, Consultant Clinical Psychologist

Paul Buxton, Policy Officer, Crawley Borough Council

Roger Evans

Martin Meteyard (former Chair, Cafedirect plc)

Christopher Bird Owner, IT U Consulting Group

Laurence Barrett Associate Management Consultant

Paul Hodgkin Chief Executive at Patient Opinion

Bob Birtwell Tutor at University of Surrey

Andrew Campbell Director at Ashridge

Kathy Sheehy Williams Programme Manager at WEA

Rob Worth

Natascha Wolf, self employed writer

Paul Summers, Corporate Programme Manager, Portsmouth City Council

David Kauders, Partner, Kauders Portfolio Management

Dave Kerr, Business Improvement Manager, Atkins

Paul Barratt, PMBprod

Kate Gott, PhD Student, Brunel Business School

Kevin Cryan, Analyst at DHL

Donal Carroll Associate at Open University Business School & Director at Critical Difference

Tim Casserley, Discovery Alliance & Edge Equilibrium & Author

Emma Langman, Head of Business Improvement at E Squared Thinking Ltd & Visiting Fellow in Systems at University of Bristol

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Written by
Judith Townend

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