pierpont article., page-13

Taking a long lunch

Pierpont columnist Trevor Sykes will leave the Australian Financial Review on December 9 after 33 years of irreverent and humorous ramblings for the column he named after "that great reptilian capitalist J. Pierpont Morgan". The self-confessed old fuddy-duddy and cigar lover, who will turn his back on a 52-year career in journalism, calculates he has churned out about 10 million words since he started on the Adelaide Advertiser as a teenager. "It's a lot of words; I feel faint every time I think about it," he says. "I decided I'd better stop doing five days a week and start smelling the roses."

His golden moment in journalism came as a young political reporter for Reuters in London when he broke a story about John Profumo that captured the imagination of the world media. The former British war minister denied an affair with a model, who was two-timing him with a Russian diplomat, and later resigned in disgrace for misleading Parliament.

Sykes is negotiating a licence arrangement with the Australian Financial Review after he successfully fought a court action against Fairfax in 1977 to claim ownership of the brand. "I find it a bit sad that no one else can come up with a better name, and that they are still trying to live off an old one that I invented 33 years ago." Sykes plans to concentrate on personal investments and a corporate career as a company director in the resources sector.