The most talked about issue at the News
Limited editors conference in Adelaide this week? No, not terror. Nor sedition law. Nor FOI. Nor
suppression orders. No. Not even Rupert’s hair dye.

No, the most important issue this week has
been Adelaide Advertiser editor Mel Mansell’s age.

The fitness conscious editor appears to
have registered his age at about 43 when he started in 1999 – and has been
going contrary to the usual direction ever since.

In an article about the Tiser last year he
again listed his aged as 43, and in this week’s SA Business supplement his year
of birth has been given as 1962, making him… 43!

The debate became so intense that a minion
was despatched to trawl the HR files – where they discovered that Mel turns
50 next year.