There are some jobs which just scream ’pressure’. You’ve got the
eyes of the world on you and, for the first six months, every move you
make will be analysed by experts and the public alike. Jobs such as the
President of the US, manager of the England football team and, oh, say
the editor of Loaded who replaces James Brown.
Step forward Derek Harbinson, former chief sub-editor of the title.
You’d be forgiven for asking ’who?’ All the media commentators have
spent the week asking that very question. Following on from a public
figure like Brown, Harbinson is a complete unknown. However, Brown
himself pooh poohed the media mutterings. ’When I came to Loaded, no-one
knew who I was,’ he pointed out. ’Look at Marie Claire. No-one knew who
Juliet Warkentin was when she took over from Glenda Bailey and she’s
doing a great job.’
Harbinson has a solid journalistic background to his credit. He grew up
in Ulster and spent six years training on the Ulster Star in Lisburn
then travelled over to Sydney where he worked on Murdoch’s Daily
Telegraph and Star. ’I rang them up for some freelance work, they asked
me where I was from, I said Belfast and they said ’do you want to start
tomorrow?’’’ he recalls. ’I don’t know if they thought I was threatening
them or something.’
But doesn’t the subject matter of Loaded seem a bit trivial after
covering a beat that included bombings, beatings and shootings? ’No, not
really,’ he says. ’I think the newspaper background makes you look for a
sense of energy and that’s what the Loaded office has. It feels like a
newspaper office. There’s always something going on. It’s not like any
magazine I’ve ever seen.’
The atmosphere and attitude of Loaded is something he clearly wants to
retain. After all, with 400,000 readers, it’s not a formula you’d want
to throw away but he concedes that change is always a possibility. ’The
brilliant thing about this magazine is that you can introduce a new
section, let it run for two months and get rid of it,’ he says.
’Everything is always under review. All I care about is whether the
person who’s writing a piece has passion. They need to have passion
about their subject matter whether it be a new band or an ice
lolly.’
He aims to continue with the tours such as the ’Buy Us A Pint’ tour,
where readers invite Loaded journalists to their local pub. He is not
planning to thrust someone into the high-profile Martin Deeson role (the
former deputy editor who was often snapped in full party mode), but is
content to let that sort of thing sort itself out. ’If I went up to
someone and said ’You! Go out and get wasted all the time.’ then it
wouldn’t work,’ he explains. ’I want the best freelancers to be knocking
at our door all the time, but the magazine is bigger than any individual
journalist and always has been.’
So what does he think Loaded’s attitude should be? ’Loaded has spirit,’
he says. ’It wants to have a good time all of the time. It does all the
things you want to do.’ And is that him? ’Well, yes. But I’m also very
lazy.’
HIGHLIGHTS
1994
Sub-editor, Daily Telegraph and Mirror, Sydney
1996
Casual sub-editor, Loaded
1997
Chief sub-editor, Loaded
1997
Editor, Loaded
