British writer Brian MacArthur, "one of the longest serving journalists in Fleet Street," died March 24, the Bookseller reported. He was 79. The founding editor of former national newspaper Today and the Times Higher Education Supplement, MacArthur more recently edited material about books for the Times and the Telegraph. As an author, his books include Deadline Sunday; Surviving the Sword; and For King and Country. He edited The Penguin Book of Modern Speeches.
MacArthur "was at the center of the Hitler Diaries scandal of 1983, in which the Sunday Times serialized what emerged to be elaborate faked diaries of the Führer," the Bookseller noted. He left the newspaper shortly after the scandal, "which saw circulation rise," to be editor of the Western Morning News.
Two years later, he became the founding editor of Today with a mission "to adopt the computer technology that would break the stranglehold of the print unions, enable color printing and revolutionize Fleet Street,” the Times wrote. Although he departed Today in 1987, his experience there inspired his book Eddy Shah: Today and the Newspaper Revolution.
MacArthur's final stint at the Times began in 1991 when he was brought back to oversee travel and books. "Paper Round," his weekly column on media matters, ran for 18 years. His last job was as the books editor of the Daily Telegraph from 2006 to 2010.