Journalist; Born June 8, 1926; Died June 24, 2007. ALAN Jenkins, who has died aged 81, was editor of The Herald - or Glasgow Herald, as it then was - at a time of tremendous change.
Jenkins oversaw the paper's move from the city's Mitchell Street, its home since 1895, to Albion Street. But, more importantly, he was editor at a time when it was moving into a new era, both editorially and technologically.
He arrived in Glasgow in January 1978 as, perhaps, a surprise choice, as only the seventeeth editor in nearly 200 years. For one thing, he was English, and he was following a long line of distinguished Scots into the editor's chair. For another, he arrived from The Sunday Mirror in London, a tabloid apparently diametrically opposed to the traditional values of the long-established Herald.
But Jenkins - described as "a gentleman" by a colleague - did not bring about a Fleet Street revolution at the paper. Instead he continued with the evolutionary changes begun by his bagpipe-playing predecessor, Iain Lindsay-Smith. The result was a healthy growth in circulation as readers embraced the changes.
Among his achievements was the promotion of the paper's previously unsung photographers, resulting in a clutch of industry awards and culminating in a splendid exhibition at the Theatre Royal.
The biggest change was to come in 1980, when The Herald moved from the famous Mitchell Street headquarters designed by Mackintosh. Despite its illustrious pedigree, the building - now the Lighthouse architecture and design centre - was an old-fashioned rabbit warren of a newspaper office. But at its heart was the grand editor's office, with original fireplace, stained-glass windows and light fittings. And a pneumatic tube that traditionally carried the editor's handwritten leading articles directly to the head printer.
On July 19, 1980, this was left behind as the Glasgow Herald moved into the modernist former Scottish Daily Express building on Albion Street. It was not just a new home, but also a new era as the paper switched overnight to the computer technology that was testing newspaper managements around the world at the time.
And it was just as testing for The Herald as teething problems caused nightly production difficulties, described by one contemporary as "absolute bloody disaster in Technicolor" and requiring all of Jenkins's diplomatic skills to resolve.
Graham Gadd, who was Jenkins's news editor at The Sunday Mirror and who joined him in Glasgow as assistant (later deputy) editor, said: "Alan would always charm his way through all of life's situations. He was a real pro, and I never knew him to do one malicious act in all his life."
Jenkins was equally happy talking to a young reporter or the Lord Provost. He was of an old-school generation of journalists who regarded the pub as an extension of the office - a place for gossip and sorting out problems, somewhere newspapermen and women, junior and senior, could mix on an equal basis.
These days, journalists still work long hours but the culture has changed and they are less likely to socialise over a drink, a change he viewed with some regret. Jenkins always felt journalism should be fun as well as a serious job.
Jenkins was born in 1926 in Reading, Berkshire, where his grandfather ran a Thames pleasure cruiser business, and started out in newspapers as a young reporter on his local paper. After Army service, he made the move to Fleet Street, where he was to spend many years on The Daily Mail.
Senior positions on The London Evening Standard, The Sunday People and The Sunday Mirror followed before his appointment in Glasgow. After he left Glasgow in 1981, he moved on to The Times in London, before finishing his career at the New Straits Times in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Jenkins married Kathleen Baker in 1949, and had four sons. Following her death in 1969, he married Helen Speed, a London-based journalist from Leuchars, with whom he had another son. Three of his sons followed him into journalism.
He retired in 1992 to a cottage in Balmerino, in north east Fife, overlooking the Tay. It was anything but a quiet retirement as he and his wife travelled extensively and he continued with freelance journalism, as well as setting up a business ghost-writing autobiographies.
Jenkins, always a champion of Glasgow while a resident of the city, extended his support to the east of the country. He was a member of his local community council, and lent his enthusiasm to projects such as the establishment of the Discovery in Dundee and the preservation of Balmerino Abbey.
He died on Sunday in Roxburghe House hospice, Dundee, after a short illness.
A funeral will be held on Monday at Our Lady Star of the Sea, Tayport.
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