Bob Statham was the owner of the Weatherfield Recorder. In October 1983 he sold a 33% share of the paper to Ken Barlow and effectively became a sleeping partner as Ken took over the position of editor from Pamela Mitchell. He occasionally put his foot down as the majority shareholder, stopping Ken from publishing an article criticising Mike Baldwin, who advertised his Graffiti Club on the Recorder. Statham told Ken to write a piece about the club and speak about Mike in glowing terms - a personal hurt for a man whose wife had had an affair with Mike earlier that year.