newspapers
newspapers. It was well over 100 years from the invention of printing to the appearance of the first newspapers. A number of corantos, based on German and Dutch models, were published in the 1620s, but they were confined to London, carried very little English news, appeared erratically, and had print-runs of only a few hundreds. The Civil War stimulated the demand for news and in the 1640s the royalist Mercurius Aulicus waged ideological warfare from Oxford against the parliamentary Mercurius Britannicus in London. The authorities, republican or royalist, mistrusted news-sheets and in 1663 Sir Roger l'Estrange was given wide licensing powers as surveyor of the press. Two years later, the London Gazette was started to provide official news. This thin government diet proved unpalatable and the broadsheets which continued to appear were devoted more to mayhem and bawdy than to political information. The excitement of the Popish plot in the 1670s persuaded many printers to risk prosecution by producing unlicensed papers, and there were also several manuscript news-letters, expensive to produce, and distributed to a limited number of subscribers.
The growth of a newspaper press in a modern form dates from the failure to renew the Licensing Act in 1695. Several newspapers were quickly off the mark, including the tri-weekly Post Boy, Post Man, and Flying Post, all of which survived until well into the 18th cent. In April 1702 they were joined by the first daily paper, the Daily Courant, and though its circulation was modest, it stayed until 1735. At the same time the provincial press made its appearance with the Norwich Post (1701), followed by the Bristol Post Boy (1702), Exeter Post-Man (1704), and the Worcester Post-Man (1709). Though casualties among newspapers were heavy, the general progress through the 18th cent. was remarkable. By 1760 there were four London dailies and by 1790 fourteen. Provincial papers multiplied even quicker: by 1760 there were 35 in existence, 50 by 1780, and 150 by 1821. Stamp duty, introduced in 1715 to curb papers, brought in £911 in its first year but by 1781 was yielding more than £40,000 p.a. to the revenue. Circulation was much larger, comment less restrained. Mist's Weekly Journal pursued Walpole in the 1730s, the Middlesex Journal attacked North in the 1770s, and Cobbett's Political Register, claiming a staggering 60,000 copies in the 1800s, sustained a long campaign for reform of Parliament. From cautious beginnings, the press had become a major political force. Parliament was obliged in the 1770s to abandon its attempt to suppress publication of its debates, and though prosecution of editors continued and the stamp duty was raised during the Napoleonic wars, public appetite grew. The stamped papers were expensive, but an unstamped press flourished, and papers could be read by the less wealthy in coffee-houses, pubs, and barbers' shops.
Sunday newspapers, at first much opposed, began in 1779 with the launch of the Sunday Monitor, joined in 1791 by the Observer, whose great days were well ahead in the 1920s. By mid-century the Sunday papers were outselling the dailies and had already acquired a reputation for sensational journalism. The News of the World began its career in 1843. Among the dailies, the prodigious success was that of The Times, started in 1785 as the Daily Universal Register, changing its name in 1788, and forging ahead in the 19th cent. with the introduction of steam printing and a news service so good that government ministers begged to know what was taking place. By 1850 it was selling four times the number of the Morning Chronicle, Morning Herald, and Morning Post combined, and claiming (1852) that it stood ‘upon the breach between the present and the future, extending its survey to the horizons of the world’. Three years later, the abolition of the stamp duty enabled the Daily Telegraph to launch itself as a rival to The Times and by 1880 it was claiming 250,000 copies.
The ‘newspaper revolution’ of the late 19th and early 20th cents., which ushered in the ‘popular press’, was progression rather than a sudden change. Ever since newspapers began, the authorities had been anxious about their effect on the masses. The broadsheets of the 1640s had revelled in sex, violence, and the bizarre. George Reynolds in the 1840s mined a rich seam with Reynolds Magazine, offering articles and stories which sounded more lurid than they were—‘Wagner, the were-wolf’, ‘Varney the Vampire’, and ‘Maniac of the Deep’. W. T. Stead's campaign in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1885 against the prostitution of young girls (for which he went to well-publicized gaol for two months) anticipated later crusades, not least in its ambiguity. What was changing was the growth of a vast new reading public, benefiting from the introduction of compulsory elementary education in 1880, able to afford a paper, yet unprepared for long and strenuous reading. First to exploit the new market was George Newnes, whose Tit-Bits (1881) rocketed to success, with odd news items, tips and hints, and competitions. T. P. O'Connor followed with the Star, a London evening paper, in January 1888, and was selling 125,000 within the month, mainly to rail commuters. Next came Alfred Harmsworth, literally the first of the newspaper barons, with Answers (1888), Comic Cuts (1890), and Home Chat (1895), before launching the Daily Mail in 1896, selling at a halfpenny, and reaching 989,000 copies by 1900. Earnest citizens could not decide whether it was splendid that the masses were now reading, or shocking that they were reading trash.
In the post-1918 period, the national dailies increased their market share, largely at the expense of the provincial papers. The competition, even with an expanding readership, was fierce. The Mail was followed by the Daily Express (1900), the Daily Mirror (1903) which was selling more than a million copies daily by 1914, and the Daily Herald (1919), organ of the new Labour Party. Reliance on advertising revenue meant that circulation figures were of crucial importance and give-away offers—pens, insurance, books, holidays—became common. Though the Herald peaked in the 1930s, it was handicapped because its readership had poor purchasing power and was unattractive to advertisers: when it closed in 1964 it still had nearly 5 million readers, but of the wrong mix. After the customary wartime boom from 1939 to 1945, the press faced new problems—sharply rising labour costs, and in the 1970s competition for advertisements from television. Ownership of the press passed from proprietors or families to large consortia with the resources to re-equip and compete. After a series of damaging confrontations with the unions in the 1970s (The Times was out of production for eleven months 1978/9), the papers began moving out of Fleet Street, with which they had been associated since the 17th cent., into purpose-built premises well away from the city of London. The quality papers continued to do well and at the bottom end of the market the competition in vulgarity would have won the approval of their 1640s predecessors. Over the past decades, the largest fall in circulation has been among the Sunday papers, reflecting the change to a day of shopping and vigorous leisure. In December 2000 the circulation of the Sun was 3.6 million, followed by the Mail (2.3), the Mirror (2.3), the Express (1.0), the Telegraph (1.0), The Times (0.72), the Star (0.5), the Financial Times (0.41), the Guardian (0.39), and the Independent (0.22). Among the Sundays, the News of the World, with its rather monotonous diet of which TV personality is cheating on whom, still outsells its rivals with 3.8 million copies, followed by the Mail on Sunday (2.3), Sunday Mirror (1.7), People (1.4), Sunday Times (1.3), Sunday Express (0.9), Sunday Telegraph (0.8), Observer (0.4), and Independent on Sunday (0.23).
The growth of a newspaper press in a modern form dates from the failure to renew the Licensing Act in 1695. Several newspapers were quickly off the mark, including the tri-weekly Post Boy, Post Man, and Flying Post, all of which survived until well into the 18th cent. In April 1702 they were joined by the first daily paper, the Daily Courant, and though its circulation was modest, it stayed until 1735. At the same time the provincial press made its appearance with the Norwich Post (1701), followed by the Bristol Post Boy (1702), Exeter Post-Man (1704), and the Worcester Post-Man (1709). Though casualties among newspapers were heavy, the general progress through the 18th cent. was remarkable. By 1760 there were four London dailies and by 1790 fourteen. Provincial papers multiplied even quicker: by 1760 there were 35 in existence, 50 by 1780, and 150 by 1821. Stamp duty, introduced in 1715 to curb papers, brought in £911 in its first year but by 1781 was yielding more than £40,000 p.a. to the revenue. Circulation was much larger, comment less restrained. Mist's Weekly Journal pursued Walpole in the 1730s, the Middlesex Journal attacked North in the 1770s, and Cobbett's Political Register, claiming a staggering 60,000 copies in the 1800s, sustained a long campaign for reform of Parliament. From cautious beginnings, the press had become a major political force. Parliament was obliged in the 1770s to abandon its attempt to suppress publication of its debates, and though prosecution of editors continued and the stamp duty was raised during the Napoleonic wars, public appetite grew. The stamped papers were expensive, but an unstamped press flourished, and papers could be read by the less wealthy in coffee-houses, pubs, and barbers' shops.
Sunday newspapers, at first much opposed, began in 1779 with the launch of the Sunday Monitor, joined in 1791 by the Observer, whose great days were well ahead in the 1920s. By mid-century the Sunday papers were outselling the dailies and had already acquired a reputation for sensational journalism. The News of the World began its career in 1843. Among the dailies, the prodigious success was that of The Times, started in 1785 as the Daily Universal Register, changing its name in 1788, and forging ahead in the 19th cent. with the introduction of steam printing and a news service so good that government ministers begged to know what was taking place. By 1850 it was selling four times the number of the Morning Chronicle, Morning Herald, and Morning Post combined, and claiming (1852) that it stood ‘upon the breach between the present and the future, extending its survey to the horizons of the world’. Three years later, the abolition of the stamp duty enabled the Daily Telegraph to launch itself as a rival to The Times and by 1880 it was claiming 250,000 copies.
The ‘newspaper revolution’ of the late 19th and early 20th cents., which ushered in the ‘popular press’, was progression rather than a sudden change. Ever since newspapers began, the authorities had been anxious about their effect on the masses. The broadsheets of the 1640s had revelled in sex, violence, and the bizarre. George Reynolds in the 1840s mined a rich seam with Reynolds Magazine, offering articles and stories which sounded more lurid than they were—‘Wagner, the were-wolf’, ‘Varney the Vampire’, and ‘Maniac of the Deep’. W. T. Stead's campaign in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1885 against the prostitution of young girls (for which he went to well-publicized gaol for two months) anticipated later crusades, not least in its ambiguity. What was changing was the growth of a vast new reading public, benefiting from the introduction of compulsory elementary education in 1880, able to afford a paper, yet unprepared for long and strenuous reading. First to exploit the new market was George Newnes, whose Tit-Bits (1881) rocketed to success, with odd news items, tips and hints, and competitions. T. P. O'Connor followed with the Star, a London evening paper, in January 1888, and was selling 125,000 within the month, mainly to rail commuters. Next came Alfred Harmsworth, literally the first of the newspaper barons, with Answers (1888), Comic Cuts (1890), and Home Chat (1895), before launching the Daily Mail in 1896, selling at a halfpenny, and reaching 989,000 copies by 1900. Earnest citizens could not decide whether it was splendid that the masses were now reading, or shocking that they were reading trash.
In the post-1918 period, the national dailies increased their market share, largely at the expense of the provincial papers. The competition, even with an expanding readership, was fierce. The Mail was followed by the Daily Express (1900), the Daily Mirror (1903) which was selling more than a million copies daily by 1914, and the Daily Herald (1919), organ of the new Labour Party. Reliance on advertising revenue meant that circulation figures were of crucial importance and give-away offers—pens, insurance, books, holidays—became common. Though the Herald peaked in the 1930s, it was handicapped because its readership had poor purchasing power and was unattractive to advertisers: when it closed in 1964 it still had nearly 5 million readers, but of the wrong mix. After the customary wartime boom from 1939 to 1945, the press faced new problems—sharply rising labour costs, and in the 1970s competition for advertisements from television. Ownership of the press passed from proprietors or families to large consortia with the resources to re-equip and compete. After a series of damaging confrontations with the unions in the 1970s (The Times was out of production for eleven months 1978/9), the papers began moving out of Fleet Street, with which they had been associated since the 17th cent., into purpose-built premises well away from the city of London. The quality papers continued to do well and at the bottom end of the market the competition in vulgarity would have won the approval of their 1640s predecessors. Over the past decades, the largest fall in circulation has been among the Sunday papers, reflecting the change to a day of shopping and vigorous leisure. In December 2000 the circulation of the Sun was 3.6 million, followed by the Mail (2.3), the Mirror (2.3), the Express (1.0), the Telegraph (1.0), The Times (0.72), the Star (0.5), the Financial Times (0.41), the Guardian (0.39), and the Independent (0.22). Among the Sundays, the News of the World, with its rather monotonous diet of which TV personality is cheating on whom, still outsells its rivals with 3.8 million copies, followed by the Mail on Sunday (2.3), Sunday Mirror (1.7), People (1.4), Sunday Times (1.3), Sunday Express (0.9), Sunday Telegraph (0.8), Observer (0.4), and Independent on Sunday (0.23).
J. A. Cannon
Bibliography
Black, J. , The English Press in the Eighteenth Century (1987);
Boyce, G., Curran, J., and Wingate, P. (eds.), Newspaper History from the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day (1978);
Brown, L. , Victorian News and Newspapers (Oxford, 1985);
Cranfield, G. A. , The Development of the Provincial Newspaper 1700–1800 (Oxford, 1962);
—— The Press and Society (1978).
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