What have been the main changes to British print media during the twentieth century and how do you account for them?

Module PS12018 - Social and Political Change in Britain in the Twentieth Century

Fay Winter 01002367 BA Journalism 2o

6. What have been the main changes to British print media during the twentieth century and how do you account for them?

Throughout the twentieth century there were many significant changes and advancements in the British print media. The changes in both print and broadcast media and indicative of changes in society itself. As society grew and changed throughout the century, these media mirrored such events.

This was also the beginning of photojournalism, not only in Britain but in Europe and the US, with picture magazines such as Picture Post, Life and Vu being as popular as the documentary newsreels shown in cinemas.

Thomas Hopkinson, along with Stefan Lorant, established the Picture Post in 1938. Over the next few years Hopkinson, who became editor in 1940, developed into a pioneer of the new field of photojournalism.

Hopkinson used the to crusade against the persecution of Jews. In the journal published on November 26, 1938, he ran a picture story entitled “Back to the Middle Ages”. Photographs of , , and were contrasted with the faces of some of those scientists, writers and actors they were persecuting. This is possibly one of the most powerful examples of photographs used for political effect. The photographs become like cartoons, hammering home their point more effectively than pages of argument and rhetoric.

As well as working on the Picture Post, from 1941 Hopkinson was also responsible for Lilliput, the pocket magazine started by Stefan Lorant. One of Lilliput’s best-known features was the 'doubles' - two look-alike photographs on facing pages: examples of which include Hitler giving the Nazi salute to a small dog with its paw raised, and a bear opposite a publican with a pear-shaped face.

In wartime Lilliput was a particularly popular magazine. It made no demands. Nor did it attack or criticize. It simply
made its audience laugh, providing easy enjoyment. Writers, artists and photographers seemed happy to work for it despite the extremely low fees it paid, and the sales rose quickly into the hundreds of thousands.

However, early in 1950 Hopkinson began to be bombarded with complaints. Firstly there were the familiar ones from Edward Hulton expressing anxiety over the Communist danger and his conviction that Picture Post was "too left-wing". At the same time criticism of a different kind began to rise from management: that the paper had lost all vitality, that readers were now finding it dull and uninspiring, out of touch with the lively new spirit of the times. Some of the photographs were too large, some too small; other ought not to have been published at all.

lost his job as editor of after publishing a story on the treatment of political prisoners during the .

Photojournalism flourished with picture magazines, however their decline in popularity started in the 1950s, Picture Post closed in 1957 and Illustrated closed in 1958.

Television had started to take over and many advertisers abandoned the picture magazines. By the 1970s photojournalism had lost most of its influence.

It was not only photojournalism that changed significantly during this time – newspapers were also growing in popularity. During the 1930s, for every 1,000 people in Britain, 600 - 700 papers were bought.

In 1887, journalist (later Lord Northcliffe) formed a new publishing business. Early publications included Answers ...

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Photojournalism flourished with picture magazines, however their decline in popularity started in the 1950s, Picture Post closed in 1957 and Illustrated closed in 1958.

Television had started to take over and many advertisers abandoned the picture magazines. By the 1970s photojournalism had lost most of its influence.

In 1887, journalist (later Lord Northcliffe) formed a new publishing business. Early publications included Answers (1888) and Comic Cuts (1890). In 1894 he went into newspapers when he acquired the for £25,000. Harmsworth revolutionized Fleet Street when he began publishing Britain's first tabloid, the , in 1896.

The Daily Mail was an immediate success and circulation quickly achieved 500,000. With the strong interest in the in 1899 sales went to over a million. Harmsworth encouraged people to buy the Daily Mail for nationalistic reasons making it clear to his readers that his newspaper stood for the power of the British Empire.

The Daily Mail was the first newspaper in Britain that catered for a new reading public that needed something simpler, shorter and more readable than those that had previously been available. One new innovation was the banner headline that went right across the page. Considerable space was given to sport and human-interest stories. It was also the first newspaper to include a woman's section that dealt with issues such as fashion and cookery.

Another innovation introduced by the Daily Mail was the publication of serials. Personally supervised by Harmsworth, the average length was 100,000 words. The opening episode was 5,000 words and had to have a dramatic impact on the readers. This was followed by episodes of 1,500 to 2,000 words every day.

Lord Northcliffe also used his newspapers to promote inventions such as the telephone, electric light, photography, motorcycles and motorcars. He was so passionate about cars that Harmsworth prohibited the editor of the from reporting road accidents.

The popularity of the Daily Mail increased with the use of promotional activities. This included the offer of prizes for the first-ever flights across the Channel and Atlantic.

The idea seemed so ridiculous that decided to mock Harmsworth by offering a prize of £10,000 for the first flight to Mars. However, by June 1910, both of Harmsworth's prizes had been won by French pilots.

In 1903 Harmsworth decided to establish the Daily Mirror as a newspaper "for gentlewomen". Kennedy Jones was put in charge of the venture and spent £100,000 in publicity, including a gift scheme of gilt and enamel mirrors. On its first day, the circulation of the Daily Mirror was 276,000. However, sales dropped dramatically after the initial launch and by January 1904, circulation was down to 24,801 and the newspaper was losing £3,000 a week.

then decided to change his original plan and began this by replacing the editor, Mary Howarth, with . Hamilton Fyfe changed the publication to a picture paper for men, as well as women. The Mirror was the first morning daily picture paper.

Henry also experimented with using different types of photographs on the front-page. On April 2, 1904, the Daily Mirror published a whole page of pictures of and his children, Henry, Albert and Mary. This was a great success and Harmsworth now realised the British public had an intense interest in photographs of the Royal Family.

In August 1905, the Daily Mirror began to pioneer the idea of the "exclusive". The first example was the "exclusive" interview with Lord Minto, the new Viceroy of India. This approach was popular and later that year the circulation of the Daily Mirror had reached 350,000.

Despite the success of the Daily Mirror, was more interested in his other newspapers, and the . In January 1914 he sold the newspaper to his brother, , now Lord Rothermere.

During the , the Daily Mirror became the most popular newspaper on the . The soldiers particularly liked the fact that the newspaper included so many pictures of life back home. The Daily Mirror also published pictures of the war, the most dramatic example of which was probably the German daylight air raid over in 1917.

sold his shares in the Daily Mirror in 1931. By this time the circulation of the newspaper had reached 800,000. While Rothermere's newspapers, the and the , gave support to Hitler, Mussolini and , the Daily Mirror, under the editorial director, , moved the newspaper to the left.

On the advice of , the advertising director, , decided to make the Daily Mirror a tabloid newspaper. Batholomew, who hated the arrogance and snobbery of the upper classes, encouraged the editorial staff to develop an anti-establishment tone. Batholomew also employed radical journalists such as and , who wrote under the name of Cassandra.

Soon after the outbreak of the Second World War, introduced the cartoonist, , to and Cecil Thomas, the editor of the Daily Mirror. Bartholomew liked Zec's work and commissioned him to do a daily cartoon. Zec's cartoons were an immediate success with the readers.

After the war was sacked from the Sunday Pictorial after a dispute with Bartholomew in December 1948. had been waiting for this opportunity and swiftly employed Cudlipp on the Sunday Express.

Cecil King was furious when he heard the news, and he joined up with (by this time) fellow director, , to remove Bartholomew as editorial director. Soon afterwards, Cudlipp was brought back as editor of the Sunday Pictorial, and later as editorial director of the Daily Mirror Newspapers Group.

The Daily Mirror remained a loyal supporter of the Labour Party. Now established as the newspaper of the working classes it became Britain's best-selling newspaper and on the morning of the Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953, sold over seven million copies.

These were not the only players in the circulation war at this time however. William Maxwell Aitken (Lord Beaverbrook) bought the Daily Express in 1919 and had a great impact on society through this media.

Both Beaverbrook with the Express and Northcliffe with the Daily Mail received great respect from their journalists, who expressed the unobstructed views of their proprietors.

Beaverbrook exploited his newspapers’ need for new stories and faces. Beaverbrook and the Express could provide attention and funds for actresses and singers who needed good reviews and flattering pictures, as well as young writers building a career.

The year 1929 was disastrous for the world economy, but somehow Beaverbrook survived unscathed. At first it seemed he lacked direction, but by the end of the year he had endured the Great Crash by selling shares before it struck. He was also engaged in the most single-minded and prolonged campaign that any British newspaper proprietor had conducted to change the policy and leadership of a great political party (the Conservatives).

Lord Beaverbrook explained the “efficacy of the weapon of the press”:

“When skilfully employed at the psychological moment no politician of any party can resist it. It is a flaming sword which will cut through any political armour…Many newspapers are harmless because they do not know how to strike or when to strike. They are in themselves unloaded guns. But teach the man behind them how to load and what to shoot at, and they became deadly.”

However, at no point did Beaverbrook attempt to justify the use of popular press power to influence elected politicians.

Not only did newspapers and magazines themselves go though some radical changes during the twentieth century, but news organisations also underwent some kind of transformation.

The predominance of Reuters within the formal and informal British Empire was challenged by the Americans during the inter-war years. Nevertheless, the last years of the nineteenth century and the first of the twentieth were the heyday of that authority.

The fiftieth anniversary of Reuter’s Telegram Company in February 1915 provided a good chance to proclaim the Britishness of the agency. A jubilee leaflet publicised:

“Reuter’s Agency has always been recognised as a British institution representing the English point of view.”

It was not only during the beginning of the twentieth century that such changes were taking place. In the 1980s new technologies revolutionised the way the print media worked. Not all of these changes were welcomed openly.

By the mid eighties, profits in the London printing industry were declining and the introduction of new technology was being resisted by skilled and semi-skilled print workers. During 1985 Rupert Murdoch, owner of News International and proprieter of The Sun, News of the World, The Times and Sunday Times, began setting up a secret printing press in Wapping under the cover of producing a new London daily.

As soon as Wapping was ready to print, Murdoch presented the printing unions (NGA and SOGAT) with a list of non-negotiable demands.

On 24th January 1986 some 6000 British Trade Unionists went on strike after months of protracted negotiation with their employers, News International and Times Group Newspapers. The company management was seeking a legally binding agreement at their new plant in Wapping, which incorporated flexible working, a no-strike clause, new technology and the abandonment of the closed shop.

Immediately after the strike was announced, all those taking part in the industrial action were dismissed. The company replaced the workforce and transferred its four major titles, the Times, the Sunday Times, the Sun and the News of the World, to the Wapping plant.

In support of their dismissed members, the print unions organised regular marches and demonstrations at the company's premises. They also called for a boycott of the four newspapers involved. As the dispute gathered momentum a large-scale police operation was launched to ensure the Wapping plant could operate effectively.

In 1987 the strike finally collapsed. With it the restrictive trade union practices associated with the traditional Fleet Street publishing empires also collapsed and the Trade Union movement in Britain was irrevocably changed.

So, it is clear that there have been many significant changes to British print media throughout the twentieth century. These have occurred under the extreme circumstances of war, political revolution and technological expansion and have had noteworthy ramifications for modern society.

Bibliography

Chisholm A & Davie M, Beaverbrook A Life (1992) London

Cudlipp H, Walking on Water (1979) London

Curran J & Seaton J, Power Without Responsibility 4th ed (1994) London

Read D, The Power of News – The History of Reuters 2nd ed (1999) London

Lecture notes

http://www.ac567.dial.pipex.com/Wapping1.htm

http://www.geocities.com/londonriots/wapping.html

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jhopkinson.htm

http://www.ted.photographer.org.uk/hometop

A Chisholm & M Davie Beaverbrook A Life (1992) London, page 276