YOU don’t found a newspaper without ambition, and Sir Andreas Whittam Smith was a determined man who hated to lose. It was to avert that possibility that Whittam Smith spent £20 million on The Independent on Sunday, which was launched into the recession that drove Maxwell to suicide. Whittam Smith bore his dethronement with courage and dignity, but it must have been a great shock to start work at the Commissioners. Whittam Smith told the BBC that “You’re in the driving seat of a car with apparently a steering wheel and apparently an accelerator and apparently a brake, but when you turn the wheel or press the pedals nothing much happens. Read our obituary of Sir Andreas Whittam Smith here.

Source: The Times December 05, 2025 00:14 UTC