Brooke Masters: Martin Sorrell, the 73-year-old permatanned, micro-managing marketing chief, found himself unpleasantly in the media frame this week after word leaked that his board at WPP was investigating allegations of "personal misconduct" by him. He "unreservedly" denies wrongdoing.
Feisty to the core, Sir Martin never dodges a scrap, especially over his record pay packets, Andrew Hill notes in a profile. After spending more than 30 years building his company, the London native and Davos regular prefers to adopt a more statesmanlike posture, offering views on technology trends and geopolitics. But the probe comes at time when the media conglomerate Sir Martin built is under unprecedented pressure from the decision by many big brands to change the way they advertise.
Pleasurable pasta: Wendell Steavenson discovers, over a plate of spaghetti alla vongole, new research that suggests the Italian staple does not deserve its fattening reputation. But she notes that this and many other food studies, lumped into metadata analyses, and then boiled down into headlines, have made eating healthily deeply confusing. Reasonable portion sizes, it turns out, are the best solution.
Macron's moment: This week's French rail strike looks on the surface like a crucial test for President Emmanuel Macron’s ability to reform his country. But Laurence Boone argues that this analysis overstates the importance of Mr Macron's plan to change working conditions for employers of the state train operator, and underestimates the president's strategic nous. She predicts he will emerge victorious.
Gang crime: Teenage boys are paying a high price for society's failure to engage them, writes Harriet Sergeant, drawing on her experience of befriending a south London gang. Toxic social media has exacerbated the failures of schools and the criminal justice system, making many of them vulnerable to knife crime and other violence. - Financial Times
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