The fight for hearts and minds

Their different stances on war against Iraq have started a battle of ideas between The Independent on Sunday and The Observer, writes David Lister

The Sunday newspaper market has been in a settled, if unsatisfactory, state for some years, its agenda too often dominated by Rupert Murdoch's Sunday Times. But now, ideological differences between the two centre left broadsheet papers, The Independent on Sunday and The Observer, have invigorated the market and crystallised editorial thinking.

The early signs are that the IoS is winning the war. Its vigorous anti-war stance has not only attracted new readers in startling quantities, it has resulted in an intriguing head-to-head confrontation between it and the pro-War Observer, not just causing some big name defectors from the latter's readership, including a number of anti-war big names such as Harold Pinter, but creating a new battle of both circulation and ideas in the market.

Just as importantly, it has sparked an editorial and management rethink at the IoS, the results of which could be seen last Sunday with two new sections, more space for arts and books coverage, and a commitment – unique in the market – to writing at length.

The tendency of newspapers, not least in media sections, to boast that all is well in their own backyards while elsewhere the wolves are at the door, fools no-one. And it would be dishonest to consider the changes at the IoS without conceding that the last few years have seen falls in circulation. But that drift and the overwhelming identification by readers with its current stance on Iraq have concentrated minds and made the paper the first in the market to acknowledge a thirst for serious coverage and a lessening of interest in celebrity-driven journalism.

And so, last weekend, as part of a number of changes, the IoS editor, Tristan Davies, launched a supplement called Talk of the Town, a metropolitan and cultural magazine distributed in the Carlton TV area, with a distinct nod at New Yorker-style good-quality writing. Davies says: "I've been trying to put the big reads back into the paper. One thing we know about our readers is that they are younger than rival papers'; they are more active, more varied in their interests and far more culturally attuned: passionate about theatre, music, art and reading. Both the Sunday and daily Independents have strong traditions of arts reporting. I'm very keen to give the readers more of what they want in that area."

The research that has shown the varied uses they make of their leisure time has also spurred Davies to start the Time Off section, consisting of travel, leisure and the Sport Active section, which he has moved from the sports pages.

But it is with Talk of the Town that he is making the boldest statement. "The last thing I wanted", he says, "was to produce just another magazine. Most supplements on Sundays and on Saturdays are copies of either successful magazines such as Heat or newspaper supplements such as (the Evening Standard's) ES magazine, which are light and fluffy. The world does not need another celebrity-driven magazine.

"I wanted to put something different into the market, and it is primarily a collection of fine writing and fine writers, a cultural metropolitan magazine. I'm a great fan of The New Yorker and The Spectator, the weekly journals that are writer-driven. The Independent titles are writers' newspapers. There are not many places where you can write at length. In most papers, you don't get many pieces of over 1,500 words." Talk of the Town contains pieces which are more than double that.

The paper is clearly a confident one again, with designer Carolyn Roberts helping it to the award of World's Best Designed Paper for the second time. Davies says: "We punch far above our weight. Steve Richards and Andy McSmith have helped make us the strongest Sunday political team in Fleet Street, and we are a campaigning paper once more. Our asthma campaign leading to a change of policy in schools, and a public health campaign which helped to get the Mental Health Act dropped from the Queen's Speech."

He is the first to admit that the success of the paper's anti-war stance, epitomised by a run of polemical front pages, encouraged him to use more serious and challenging material across the paper. The anti-war stance was consistently delivered from the first, but the new chief executive, Ivan Fallon, urged that it be more boldly stamped upon the paper. The IoS is now the only Sunday broadsheet to have been consistently against the war.

At The Observer – where staff as well as readers have been taken aback at the paper's official pro-war line expounded in a 1,400-word leader in mid-January – the editor, Roger Alton, also makes a thoughtful defence of his position, pointing out that he gives space to all ranges of opinions from his writers, has carried reports exposing fallacies in the Government's argument and has run a subsequent leader accusing the Government of "corroding truth" after its dubious dossier. Readers, he says, are interested in "the whole package" not just the leader columns.

Nevertheless, he also said that although his readers initially opposed the position of his January leaders supporting war as a last resort by about 2-1, he and the paper continued to support a conflict because "there are links, however sketchy, between Iraq and al-Qa'ida. If Saddam decides to ally himself with or arm, covertly, terrorism aimed at the West, this would be an extremely frightening scenario. On the moral argument, the people of Iraq have suffered a great deal ... So, oddly, I find the argument for the removal of Saddam, by armed force if that has to be, overwhelming, and I am genuinely sometimes flummoxed by the refusal of large numbers of people, whether MPs, or many of my acquaintances, or many of the marchers, to see that argument."

Davies says: "This war is a very important moment in the history of these two papers. And I have to say that Roger's position at The Observer was one that took me by surprise and, I suspect, has taken a lot of his readers by surprise. I have had a lot of Observer readers say that they are switching papers; we have had a significant rise in our sales in the past six weeks. The day after the march was the biggest sales hike we have had this year. It's encouraging, but we're not getting carried away.

"What was journalistically interesting", he adds, "was that we took away the skyline for that issue – no CDs, no free books, no celebs, none of the usual tricks. I was very encouraged that news, and the correct handling of the news, can sell a paper as well as anything else."

The conflict of ideas between two perceived left-of-centre Sunday newspapers has certainly invigorated the market; it is also beginning to crystallise thinking about the seriousness of editorial coverage away from the war and politics pages.

And that is an important move for journalists and readers alike.