Stempra newsletter
INTERVIEW: Dr Roger Highfield, Editor of New Scientist
Roger Highfield was the science editor at the Daily Telegraph for two decades and has just become the editor of New Scientist. He is also famous for being the first person to bounce a neutron off a soap bubble and for writing books including one aptly called Can Reindeer Fly? on the physics of Christmas (available online and from all good retailers).
Claire Bithell (CB) How did it feel to leave the Telegraph after all those years?
Roger Highfield (RH) It felt great both to take on a fantastic new challenge and to become the editor of a great magazine.
CB How do you think journalism has changed on national newspapers over the time you have worked for the Telegraph?
RH When I started out in Fleet Street I would bash stories out on a manual typewriter and in triplicate too. I went to a lot of press conferences and meetings. There was no email, only the phone and fax. There were no wires either. Messengers brought us telexes of wire stories. There was a real spike in the news room for unwanted stories and the subeditors usually improved your copy.
The deadlines were late and each page of the paper was dense with stories. By the time I finished we rarely escaped the office, deadlines were usually around lunchtime and the print edition carried a fraction of the stories that it used to.
The web - along with web TV - became the main focus of our work. Instead of writing a couple of stories each day, I would have to do up to eight, plus video too. And run a science page.
CB What do you miss about the Telegraph?
RH I worked with a lot of great people, such as Matt the legendary pocket cartoonist, and the web/TV side of things was always a hoot to do.
CB What won't you miss about the Telegraph?!
RH Having to ask the news desk not to add the word 'breakthrough' to every story I wrote.
CB How does your new job differ?
RH I now have to manage a very big and talented team. I don't have much time to write much any more – but after having bashed out 10,000 plus articles plus a few books, I feel I have already had a lifetime dose of writing.
CB Is it strange to be working on a weekly schedule not a daily schedule?
RH It is, particularly when you are talking about things that won't appear for weeks and weeks.
CB What did working at the Telegraph tell you about scientists?
RH That most of them try to be straight about the science they did and why they did it. But there were still some shocking exceptions. Like the head of a research unit who took credit for the work of a fellow researcher without mentioning her. That sounds a bit unremarkable except that, in this case, she happened to be his wife.
CB Do you have more empathy for scientists and their work or less?
RH I did a DPhil so I have always respected things that may not mean much to a general reader but that mean a lot to them, most notably attribution and accuracy.
CB Do you think that scientists are more savvy about the media now than they used to be? How do you think they could get better at dealing with the media?
RH They are more savvy but there is still a great deal of resentment when a peer basks in the limelight. Many still miss the basic point of the media – to sell newspapers, make people click on your site or watch/listen to your show. The audience is king.
CB What do you hope to achieve at New Scientist?
RH I hope to grow New Scientist into a truly global magazine that is awash with Big New Sexy Ideas.
CB What do you think will be the biggest challenge in your new role?
RH I have started at a very difficult time, given the state of the global economy, and my main challenge will be to build on the already great editorial to win more readers worldwide.
CB Where do you see New Scientist going in the future?
RH I look forward to our Mars edition coming out to keep its colonists happy in decades to come.
CB Are new media and online news sites a worry to print publications?
RH Just look at the sickly state of Fleet Street – online is the future. We just have to figure out how to make more money out of it.
CB How should press officers work with New Scientist?
RH Offer us as many scoops as possible. Preferably with great video too.
CB What is the worst thing about press officers?
RH When their press releases carry contact numbers of people who are impossible to get hold of.
CB What makes a good press officer?
RH One who only sends you stuff that you will be interested in, rather than stuff the university thinks you ought to be interested in.
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