Man who brought newspapers into the future dies at 80

Bert Hardy, one of the most powerful figures in the newspaper industry in a career spanning 65 years, has died after a long illness at the age of 80.

Mr Hardy was 14 when he started his first job in newspapers and went on to occupy some of the most influential posts in British journalism.

He was chief executive and then chairman of the Evening Standard for a decade, chief executive of News International for five years and chief executive of Associated Newspapers for another five. He was also deputy chairman of Channel4, chief executive of defunct newspaper The European and deputy chairman of Scotsman Publications.

He worked with many of the best-known figures in newspapers over the past half-century including Hugh Cudlipp, Rupert Murdoch, Vere Rothermere, David English, Paul Dacre and the Barclay brothers. He retired twice before taking up his last post as managing director of the Evening Standard in 2005, calling it a day two years ago.

Mr Hardy, who was born in Mill Hill, began work in 1942 as a copy boy on the Picture Post. The job gave him his first link to the Standard - he and his colleagues would take shelter from the Luftwaffe's bombs in the newspaper's reinforced print room off Fleet Street.

After a stint in the Army he joined the advertising department of Reveille, a weekly newspaper owned by the Mirror group. In 1958 he was made the Mirror group's advertising manager in Manchester and five years later Cudlipp, then the Mirror group's chairman, asked him to become advertising director of the Daily Herald in London.

In 1969 Mr Murdoch, who had just bought the News of the World, offered him the post of advertising director on the title. "He was so charismatic," Mr Hardy said in a recent interview. "Within half an hour of meeting him I agreed to leave Mirror group after 20 years. I was in seventh heaven."

He became joint advertising director of the Sun and in 1974 Mr Murdoch offered him the post of chief executive of News International as they walked along Bondi Beach. He planned the move to Wapping that revolutionised the industry by smashing the print unions.

But his success came at a price and Mr Murdoch sacked him in 1979. "I got a bit too big for my boots," he once said. "I p***ed Rupert off by telling him what we were going to do rather than asking him."

He joined the Standard as chief executive, winning a newspaper war with Robert Maxwell, who had launched the rival London Daily News.

The battle was, Hardy admitted, a "little bit murky" and involved reviving an old title, the Evening News. "We launched it within three days of Vere [Rothermere] making the decision. We won the battle because we confused the whole market," he once said.

His reward was promotion to chief executive of Associated Newspapers before retiring in 1994 at the age of 66, but a year later the Barclay Brothers persuaded him to run The European and their Scottish newspaper interests.

He was diagnosed with cancer of the brain and, despite a grim prognosis, survived surgery and chemotherapy and radiotherapy. After being out of work for two years he went back to Associated Newspapers in 2001, being appointed managing director of the Standard in 2005. He said at the time: "Of all the papers I've worked on, the Standard is the one which I find myself most fond of and most close to."

Paul Dacre, editor in chief of Associated Newspapers, said: "Bert Hardy was the greatest newspaper manager of his generation, whose brilliance and foresight changed the course of our industry. His close involvement with the Wapping revolution changed Fleet Street and, indeed, no one fought harder to ensure our industry kept pace with the times.

"Bert, who didn't suffer fools gladly, was one hell of a tough negotiator but no one who knew him doubted his deep love of news- papers. His greatest love, however, was the Evening Standard."

Mr Hardy is survived by his wife Janet, daughter Zoe and three grandchildren.