ABSTRACT
Competition for print journalists came as radio took wing between the world wars. Until the second half of the century, telephones were, for most, a luxury; not until then did delivering copy to newspapers by pigeon or messenger boy become prehistoric. The immediacy of the broadcasts hit newspaper sales – why wait to read about a match that evening, or indeed the following day, when you could hear it unfold as it happens? In time, the two would prove complementary: the desire to relive the action, and obtain greater detail and measured judgements, would keep print reporters in business. Indeed, it was a measure of the symbiotic relationship between print and broadcasting that, in the autumn of 2006, my old London Daily News and Sunday Times colleague Mihir Bose left the Daily Telegraph to become the BBC’s first sports editor.
