I have complained before that The Grauniad sometimes looks as if it’s no more than the internal corporate newsletter of the people who work for it.   Their sister title, The Observer, has a particularly egregious example of such behaviour this weekend.  Of the 18 pages devoted to arts preview coverage, 6 entire pages are devoted to one person, 7 pages if you count the cover.  Who is this paragon?  Did some famous artist just die?  What artist or actor or dancer or musician or film-maker or writer deserves such coverage?  Why, it was  none of these!  The coverage is for the newspaper’s film-critic, Philip French, who hasn’t even died, but is merely retiring.   And guess what?  As well as these 7 out of 18 entire pages, another half-page is given over in the reviews section to French’s latest film review! 

It’s good see the Guardian/Observer’s Marketing Department so successfully targeting that crucial demographic, current and former Guardian/Observer employees who know Philip French.   Pity that doing so alienates the rest of us.