Roy Greenslade 

Sunday People editor disputes claim by Sue Douglas over Saatchi scoop

He explains how pictures were obtained
  
  


Sue Douglas believes the outcome of last night's British press awards was some kind of vindication of her brief time as the Sunday People's chief.

The paper picked up the prize for best front page for its agenda-setting picture of Charles Saatchi with his hands around Nigella Lawson's throat.

That photographic scoop, which led to a story that ran and ran for weeks afterwards, was published on the first week of Douglas's tenure, in June 2013, in charge of the paper.

She had been hired by the paper's owner, Trinity Mirror, to be the People's publishing director and to launch a new subsidiary called Sunday Brands.

But her claim to be responsible for masterminding the story is disputed by the People's editor, James Scott.

After I suggested that she would have observed the awards with a wry smile, Scott issued a statement denying that she played any part in the story:

"The Nigella photographs were brought in by our picture editor, Mark Moylan, who had a long- standing relationship with the photographer who took them outside Scott's restaurant. To suggest anything else is just not true.

"The Sunday People team worked on the story and created the splash that won us front page of the year at last night's press awards."

Douglas's appointment was not welcomed by Scott, nor by the group's senior editor, the Daily Mirror's Lloyd Embley.

Within weeks of her arrival, she was redirected by Trinity's chief executive, Simon Fox, to create and launch a stand-alone website, People.co.uk.

It went live in November but failed to catch the public imagination - partly because of a lack of resources and promotion, and partly due to the thin content. The result was the firing of Douglas in January this year, just seven months after her hiring.

The company explained that Douglas's website had not hit the expected traffic targets.

But the bitterness between her and Trinity Mirror clearly continues as this dispute over the award illustrates.

 

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