Most of you by now will have heard the mention of a man very conspicuous in the domain of the press and publishers, Richard Desmond, who, in strictly opinionated language, is much closer to being a highly recommendable candidate for Worst Business Figure in the UK than many others I could imagine.
In my view, Desmond's persona typifies a kind of self-obsessed hunger, an unstable character that could collapse in on itself at any time and draw several innocent entities inwards and into the advanced stages of bellicosity to which he is often a victim of at this point in his chequered career. There have been accounts and records from some of these unfortunate associates and opponents of Desmond, whom he has previously sought to ruin, or unintentionally damaged - the damage either tends to come financially, and is concentrated around the lengthy litigation procedures that he espouses in his defence, or simply by verbal abuse.
But he isn't just the harbinger of libel, but can also be the harasser of people whom he has connections with, either by personal association or affiliation in business. As much as he'd love us to revere his looming reputation as chairman of Northern and Shell, proprietor of Express Newspapers and power-hungry magnate who strives for further acquisition in the publisher profession (efforts to acquire ownership of The Daily Telegraph in 2004 flopped), it cannot be helped that his detractors confidently propagate the image of a screeching little boy who squashes ants when he doesn't get his way. The man does it to himself.
A short list here states some of the memorable conflicts/cases he has been involved in since his acquisition of Express Newspapers back in 2000:
1) Dez V Daily: the leading mid-market competitor to the Daily Express is the Daily Mail, which currently bags the cat at more than double the Express's daily circulation rates. It is no secret that Desmond wishes to be the leader of the mid-market race. The chairman of Associated Newspapers and its parent company Daily Mail and General Trust plc, Lord Rothermere, has had several battles shared by him and Desmond since his younger adversary joined the ranks of 'legitimate publishers' (a clear step up from OK! magazine and his pornographic empire). Interestingly enough, Desmond was ranked 44th equal richest man by the Sunday Times Rich List, whereas Rothermere tailed behind at 51st (no doubt this gave Desmond a proud gleam)
2) Dez V Pentagon Capital Management: after a minor disagreement with PCM fund managers earlier this year, in which Desmond demanded that a relatively inconsequential amount of money be repaid to his son, who had invested with PCM after his father, Desmond and Sunday Express editors were made to pay sums in damages and legal costs, as well as publish a formal apology. PCM refused to repay Desmond's son's invested money, and subsequently inaccurate information was published in the Sunday Express, which was reportedly linked to Desmond, after he had made verbal threats to a member of PCM management
3) Dez V Bower: a rather exhilarating, as well as exacerbating case for journalist and author Tom Bower resulted in Desmond owing around £1.25m in legal costs, after three solid weeks of attempting to secure libel damage payments from Bower. Desmond claimed his reputation was affected by Bower, when he "made inaccurate and damaging allegations about me" and "refused to apologise and publish a correction". This case, as well as demonstrating the sheer childish persistence of Desmond, reminds any avid detractors of Desmond to never falter factually if they desire to securely objectify his adverse terms and behaviour
There seems to be no way in hell - a hell Desmond himself is enthroned in as a demi-devil - that this man of 'business' is capable of learning from his mistakes, and of these he has made many. From what has been exposed about Desmond's character in the years since his mainstream emergence, there has been little spread about the media sphere to suggest anything more about him than a single-minded, albeit effective and adept machine for hard-headed business - and the connotation of machine means predictability as much as it means efficiency - with a propensity to invigorate his cogs with a man-child-like vindictiveness.
Over the past few months, after reading plenty of stories and gaining some insight into the consistently aggressive and contentious position that Desmond has placed himself in over the years, I have elicited information and opinions to the effect that my overall standpoint on this particular man is that of ashamed disapproval, not to mention a fraction of pity for his woeful personal encumbrances.
For me to sum up Desmond in one word would be defeatist to the point, which is the fact that you cannot afford stoop to the level of the antagonist if you are to be able to defend a reasonable argument.
So, for Richard Desmond, I reserve my final judgement, but wholeheartedly remark in his own words that, 'it was worth it to stand up (in blog, not court) and set the record straight'.
A reminder to anyone who reads this blog post that this is completely opinion-based and is not in any way a statement of fact, despite its inclusion of factual information to support an argument in comment.
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