Stefano Hatfield at i: Are you young, dumb and full of it?

Stefano Hatfield

Happy days again for Stefano Hatfield who will oversee the Independent's mini-me daily, i. Hardly a surprise appointment given that this former Campaign editor helmed the doomed thelondonpaper a while back and made a habit there of preferring young inexperienced hacks to the tried and trusted - cheapness and compliance being the former's two big pluses. I do hope he's now up to speed on the law on workplace ageism, though I doubt it.

So here's a bluffer's briefing. The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations of 2006 make it unlawful to discriminate against workers under the age of 65 on the grounds of age. The rules affect recruitment, training, promotion, redundancy, retirement, pay and pension provision.

It was therefore unfortunate that MediaGuardian of February 5, 2007, felt compelled to note that 'Hatfield ... freely admits that he has chosen to hire journalists of a similar age to his target twenty-to-thirtysomething readership [at thelondonpaper]. No veteran hacks moaning about the good old days here, it seems.' MediaGuardian is itself an ageist medium so I wouldn't be expecting much sense from that quarter.

i is targeting young urbanites and has a featherweight budget. Expect, then, a deluge of recruitment of novice regionals (and their friends) in the immediate future. Any examples of ageism at i (or anywhere else) will receive a fair hearing at Madame Arcati.

Stefano Hatfield is in his mid-to-late 40s.