Former Islington Tribune reporter Peter Gruner

NOT only could he spot a great story from a mile away, but Eric Gordon also managed to provide three uniquely left-leaning and campaigning local newspapers – all still going strong – with paid staff, at a time of huge insecurities in the industry.

One of his greatest political claims to fame was in 2006 when he revealed how Margaret Hodge MP (former leader of Islington council), then Industry Minister in a Labour government, broke ranks and attacked prime minister of the day, Tony Blair, over the invasion of Iraq.

Hodge was the first minister to speak out when she made her unscripted comments about how the invasion was a “big mistake”. She thought it was a private meeting of the Islington Fabian group. It wasn’t and Eric was taking copious notes. The story became front-page news in the next day’s national newspapers.

He cared so deeply about local issues that back in 2010 he even hired an open top bus as part of the Save The Whittington Hospital campaign.

He never patronised anyone – certainly not me during my 11-year tenure on the Islington Tribune. If I thought I had a great story which should be on the front page he’d reply in his distinctive Mancunian tones: “Good story, Peter. But it’s not a splash.”

We first met back in the late 1970s, after being introduced by our mutual friend Howard Hannah, who was then the chairman of the North London branch of the National Union of Journalists.

Howard, incidentally, still works as literary editor of the CNJ.

Eric, then editor of the now defunct Camden Journal, often talked about setting up his own paper but no one believed it was possible.

He was not a businessman nor did he possess vast sums of cash.

He set up his fledging Camden New Journal in 1982 not long after I had been made redundant from the Tottenham Weekly Herald.

Losing your job doesn’t do your confidence any good but Eric offered employment and I spent six months doing the odd story for the paper but mainly helping to get advertising.

When I was offered a job as a reporter on the Evening Standard, Eric was delighted for me but warned I might struggle with the right-wing politics. I worked on the ES for 20 years before again being made redundant.

When Eric offered me a job on the Islington Tribune I was enormously grateful. It was the best place I ever worked.

PETER GRUNER

Andrew Walker: ‘Rush for first Tribune splash’

Andrew Walker

“SPEAK to you a minute in here?”

Something told me this call to Eric’s office was different from the others.

“I have decided to take a gamble on you,” he said.

I felt a great weight of responsibility falling on my shoulders, I had no idea if I could possibly live up to it.

Eric’s plan for the Tribune, at least initially, was to go light on the politics and the crime, and focus instead on human interest stories. We needed a really good one for the first splash, and right up until the last minute, we didn’t have it.

Besides editing three papers, Eric Gordon was the professor of an unacknowledged, but nevertheless elite, journalism school; maybe the last bastion of “learning on the job” in an industry that has changed completely over the course of his lifetime.

After Eric had shown he had faith in me, I did not want to let him down.

With hours to go before the Tribune’s first deadline I pounded up and down the streets of Angel, wracking my brains and looking for a story… But what?

The single thing I had in my favour was something that I had only discovered working for Eric – a conviction that if I saw what I was looking for, I would recognise it.

Hope fading, I wandered into St Mary’s Upper Street. I didn’t have an appointment, but one of the volunteers kindly offered to find the people in charge for me.

He was pretty new there himself, having just quit his job in the City to work at the church’s lunch programme for elderly parishioners…

“Top finance guy gives up his six-figure salary to volunteer for the elderly at Upper St Church,” were the first words out of my mouth as I barged back into the office.

Eric’s brows shot up, his eyes shining. I will always remember that face.

Yes! …Perhaps I could do it, after all.

• ANDREW WALKER was a reporter on the Islington Tribune at its launch

Emily Finch: ‘With a swish of a red pen, he’d make it right’

Emily Finch

MY last memory of Eric was an hour-long conversation we had last April about the pandemic and what was happening in China.

He was forever curious and you could never predict what he might say next.

He’d sometimes give away his Mancunian roots by saying, “give it me”, when reaching for a book or pen.

I found myself unconsciously adopting this turn of phrase in what was an approving nod to the man who showed me the power of local news.

When my father became terminally ill in 2018, Eric invited me into his office and offered encouragement when all felt lost.

I will never forget this or his whistling, for that matter.

Eric had an incredible capacity for creativity and kindness, coming up with intricate lesson plans for his son while they were imprisoned in a tiny hotel room in Beijing for two years.

In a similar way, he nourished us journalists in the name of good copy.

During my time at the Tribune (2017-2019), I learnt more than I would have on an MA degree or at the majority of other local newsrooms.

He was old style, they don’t make them like him anymore. On a Wednesday evening, he’d appear like a whirling dervish, depositing fliers, old books, and wisps of wisdom throughout the office.

There was the dreaded red pen which he’d use to scribble on your copy and with a few arrows and marks, he’d edit the thing into something worthwhile.

Camden, Islington, and Westminster have lost a benevolent elder who smelt the whiff of wrongdoing years before the fire reached our doors.