Philip Kleinman Dies

Philip Kleinman, The MR Journalist, has died in hospital following heart surgery. He was well known in the industry as former editor of 'Campaign' and a regular contributor to Admap, before founding the pioneering web site MRNews in the late 1990s.

He died on Friday and was buried at the weekend, in accordance with Jewish custom which sets a maximum of three days before burial.

Kleinman was born in 1930s Whitechapel and studied at Cambridge. He cut his teeth in a number of overseas roles including work for Agence France Presse, but came to prominence as founding editor, with Kevin Jackson, of Campaign magazine in the late sixties. Since the mid-1980s he has written a regular feature for Admap, The Research Business.

A familiar figure at conferences in the UK and abroad, Kleinman was guaranteed to liven up a press briefing with an awkward and often wrong-footing question, even when surrounded by terribly nice editors reluctant to rock the boat.

In private conversations, his invective against certain high-profile individuals in MR associations and companies would be unrestrained and often rich in expletives, but his writing was governed by a detailed knowledge of libel law and generally succeeded in sailing close to the wind without capsizing. Kleinman could smell a controversy at some considerable distance, and took a sometimes mischievous delight in pursuing it, but always seemed to make a firm distinction between those he saw as genuine wrongdoers and those who were simply next in line for a bit of a hard time.

Under the guise of Lagado Publications he produced a number of reports on the state of the MR industry, working on the final one in 2000 with DRNO's original editor Nicky Hardy, who remembers the pros and cons of working with him: 'Sometimes irascible, always brimming with ideas, generally disorganised, always ready with an opinion, never afraid of courting controversy if he felt it was warranted. Truly a memorable character.'

MRNews operates as a weekly email of headlines and brief summaries but unlike DRNO charges a subscription fee to view full stories. Characteristically, when asked about the decision to charge, Kleinman valued the blunt truth over the chance to promote the industry, telling marketingsherpa.com: 'I did no reader research about willingness to pay. I did informally ask a number of people, mostly readers, what they thought of the idea. Unsurprisingly they mostly said it was lousy.' He 'strongly advised online publishers against asking readers if and what they will pay'.

In a way, Philip was indirectly responsible for the start of DRNO – though in some respects a 'competitor' we were always pleased to bump into him going about his business in his idiosyncratic but thoroughly professional manner.

We are sorry to see him go. Our own corner of the profession will indeed be a duller and quieter place without him.

Nick Thomas

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.