RB: Tell us a bit about yourself.

CQ: I spent many years working in the Civil Service. My background is in policy development and project management, and I have done a lot of work with trade unions, which opened my eyes in a way they hadn’t been before to their work and the proud role of our labour movement. I am interested in helping organisations change the way they do things and realise their potential. The Morning Star has masses of the latter and I took the business manager job to make a difference to this fantastic paper.

RB. What do you think are the issues faced by the Morning Star?

CG: The Morning Star is a great newspaper with a proud history. It is a beacon of the left. But there’s been a tradition of firefighting rather than strategic development or long-term financial planning. And it faces a number of serious structural challenges. Readership is too low. Business processes have evolved over the years in response to immediate pressures rather than as a result of a strategic approach. And the newspaper world is evolving rapidly as readership patterns change and people switch from print to online news. 

RB: What’s the solution?

CG: The Star needs a new business model fit for the 21st century. This means bringing together our campaigning, advertising, circulation and electronic sales to deliver a more structured approach to sales overall. It means using new technology to communicate better with readers and supporters, develop tighter business processes and develop better relations with shareholders. It means ensuring our website delivers the right functionality, offers high design values and provides a good reader experience.

The encouraging thing about all this is that the Star is lucky to have a great team of people delivering both the news and the business side of things. There’s bags of enthusiasm and considerable talent amongst the staff. And work is already in hand to deliver a new, strategically driven approach to the Star’s development programme.

RB: Where would like to see the Star in future?

CG: We are the only paper to report on the industrial and political issues that matter to trade union members and to champion the millions of people in Britain who believe a better world is possible. The Star is the only paper that consistently supports trade unions in their fightback against this wretched government and its attacks on working people.

It has tremendous potential and should, by rights, be the paper of choice for the left, for members of trade unions and members of progressive, campaigning organisations.

A strong Morning Star is vital if we are to expose the economic and political bankruptcy of this coalition, and show that a better world is possible. We are doing our bit to make this happen.

We now need people in the labour movement to show their support for the paper by taking out a subscription to the e-edition or buy the print edition daily and to promote the paper to their friends and colleagues.