The Press: Punch's New Punch

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As the showpiece items in Britain's leading humor magazine, Punch's cartoons are known the world over. But its punchless articles are scarcely noticed even in Britain. It was not always so: once Punch was as well known for its caustic writing and cartoons on the social and political scene as it was for its humor. Punch shocked the world by printing Thomas Hood's "Song of the Shirt," a poem that bitterly described the sweatshops of the Industrial Revolution, and during World War I, Punch's attacks on the Kaiser were so pointed that the Germans put a price on the editor's head. Last week Punch took a long step toward bringing its writing up to par with its cartoons. For the first time in in years, the board named a newsman as its editor: the London Daily Telegraph's Deputy Editor Macolm Muggeridge, 49, to replace Kenneth Bird, 64, retiring to cartoon under his famous signature "Fougasse."

Muggeridge has worked for the Manchester Guardian, Evening Standard and Telegraph. He was an editor in India, a correspondent in Moscow and Washington, and his articles on the 1952 presidential campaign were just about the best in the British press. Newsman Muggeridge has always been as close a reader of The New Yorker and TIME and LIFE as of Punch. In Punch's own way, Muggeridge may bring to the magazine timeliness together with the suavity of The New Yorker's notes and comment. Says Muggeridge: "Punch must comment on the world today . . . I'm as pleased as punch [with the new job]—I hope."