This is also the age of media consolidation, as many independent newspapers were swallowed up into powerful "chains". This was with regrettable consequences as many newspapers were reduced to vehicles for the distribution of the particular views of their owners, and so remained, without competing papers to challenge their viewpoints.
However there is also the emergence of the predecessors of the modern news agencies, which greatly helped the flow of information.
The Northcliffe Revolution.
In 1887 the journalist Alfred Harmsworth formed a new publishing group. With this company he went on to produce several magazines including ‘Answers to correspondence’ and ‘Forget me nots’. He was rather an unremarkable, although successful man until 1894 when he diversified into newspapers with the purchase of the Evening News, which was a failing national paper. Harmsworth realised that this and other papers of the time were rather stunted and alike. He changed the style and instantly turned the paper’s fortunes around through directly appealing to peoples changing tastes. This was the first major step into the world of newspaper ownership and control for the man who was to become Lord Northcliffe.
Northcliffe has become known as the founder of the modern British press, he is seen as a great innovator that changed the industry and dragged it into line with modern ways of thinking. This phenomenon has become known as the ‘Northcliffe Revolution’. What Northcliffe was able to do was change his papers so that they catered to the feeling of the time. He created a relationship with his readership that was unsurpassed and also greatly needed at the time. This was to fill a void that evolved in society through the upheaval it had to endure over the transition from an agricultural to industrial society. Also it complimented the evolutions in government and monarch rule. The parliament gained more powers at this point, removing the powers from the monarchy and placing them in the hands of elected officials of government. This in turn empowered the people, increasing their need to understand the issues that were being debated. Northcliffe’s newspaper empire presented these issues to the people in way that was accessible and understandable.
During the nineteenth century, with the development of the industrial revolution came urbanisation, workers were now pushed closer together around factories and industrial areas. The country was coming to terms with this demographic shift away from farms and small villages towards big cities with their dense concentrations of people. With the greater social sphere created within these communities came the desire for self-betterment and direct political representation. These workers had come from a historical background of servants to the imperial masters, they were able to move up through the classes for the first time and greater significance was given to the individual. Men had a greater influence over their future and this coupled with the education act of 1870 led to a rise in rates of literacy. Education became important, not just for the upper classes but for all that were able to capitalise on this shifting power balance. Within the new communities that sprung up people began to feel the need for identity and form their own opinions. At this time there was also an emergence of an academic understanding of these needs and feelings, which became known as the new and mysterious ‘popular culture’ phenomenon. With this new identity and movement away from the control from above, came the need for different reading material than was currently available.
On the back of his success with the Evening News Northcliffe set up a completely new paper of his own, employing techniques unseen in other papers of the time. This was an answer to the public’s need for a cheep, daily national paper, one that could fulfil their need for understanding of the enormous changes going on around them.
This paper was the Daily Mail, it was first published on the fourth of May 1896, and it heralded the beginning of the end of the traditional method of publishing news
Northcliffe initially targeted his new paper at the middle classes, people that had disposable income. This made them ideal targets for advertising and in turn revenue for Northcliffe. He not only sold the advertising space to other companies, but also used it to advertising his own papers and products. The paper was based on a cornerstone of advertising; recovering most of the production costs this way enabled a reduction in the price to the reader. This meant that the paper was able to be produced and sold at a cost of ½ d. This was partly made possible by the repeal of the stamp duty in 1855, which had reduced the cost of all papers from as much as 6 or 7d.
The reduction of price opened a new market, one that had never been counted before. Northcliffe saw that by calculating his circulation figures he could demand a higher price for advertising based on the outreach of his paper. These figures, worked out using a system created by Northcliffe, were presented to companies as an incentive to advertise on his pages. In this way he reached larger companies and was able to create more income from adverts. The daily advertising revenue he generated swallowed up three-quarters of the cost of producing a newspaper. In fact Northcliffe had such an effect with his advertising schemes that one of his employees, Kennedy Jones, head of creating another of Northcliffe’s papers the Daily Mirror, was to say of newspapers “We have made it a branch of commerce.” (Briggs & Burke 2002, p207).
To tap into this target audience of the middle classes he had his journalists write in a manner that was easier to understand, and more exciting. Gone were the straight dictations of parliamentary speeches, instead the words were reported on, subtleties and ambiguities used to create interest. He reduced the size of the parliament column, concentrating instead on news issues. The front page was dominated by news stories that would grab attention, using punchy headlines. The front page was also made more aesthetically pleasing, before front pages were thick with text, now they were broken with pictures, illustrations and large headlines. Entertainment stories and scandal became staples of the newspaper diet. Northcliffe himself said ‘It is hard news that captures readers […] and its features which hold them’ (Fyfe, 1930, p270)
This is nothing specifically new, Harmsworth had looked at the road paved by American papers, and presented it to the British public in a way that was accessible to them, away from the flashy billboards of Americanism. They had seen these stories as newsworthy ahead of stuffy imperialistic Britain. Joseph Pulitzer was so impressed by Northcliffe that he invited him to edit his New York World on the first day of the twentieth century. Harmsworth felt it needed a new, smaller shape for the occasion, one that was to become known worldwide as the tabloid. This was to be one of many innovations introduced by the press barons back in Britain.
Northcliffe looked at readership and realised that he was reaching only half of his potential audience when he introduced a woman’s page to the Daily Mail. It was to be highly successful and led him to develop the Daily Mirror to an entire paper aimed at woman. Northcliffe later recalled: "Some people say that a woman never really knows what she wants. It is certain she knew what she didn't want. She didn't want the Daily Mirror I then changed the price to a halfpenny, and filled it full of photographs and pictures to see how that would do." Within a month sales had increased sevenfold. ()
One large difference that Northcliffe is seen to have helped pioneer was that of disassociation from political groups. He saw that if his papers were directly affiliated to one political group then he was aiming at a smaller audience. However after initially shunning a political viewpoint he was able to stamp his standpoints on the publications, notably the daily mail was pro imperialism and later pro Mosely and the Black Shirts. This show of opinion was to be reinforced industry wide as the press barons amalgamated papers together for profit.
A major cause in the rise and fall in the readership of the larger newspapers is apparent if you look at the 1920’s. The Daily Mail had developed a war with one of its closest opponents, the Express. The two papers had come up with the incentive of free insurance if you were to buy their papers. This incentive was to gain momentum and spiral to the cost of over a million pounds to each paper per year by 1928. However a year later saw the introduction of more competition in the form of the Daily Herald, which was to triple the incentive spending record. This was through the giving of gifts to readers for taking out subscriptions; the gifts included everything from kitchen equipment to clothes. These subscriptions were pedalled door to door by an army of salesmen directly employed by the newspapers. The wars played out in the market place had a great affect over the circulation numbers of each paper. Over the years from 1918 to 1939 the total circulation of daily national newspapers had risen from 3.1 million to 10.6 million. This was to reach a peek in 1950 with a circulation of almost 17 million
However incentives were not the only thing to affect newspaper sales as the Daily Mail found out to its detriment. In the lead up to the Second World War Northcliffe’s heir and brother, Lord Rothermere, had taken over his empire. Rothermere was a supporter of the British fascist Sir Oswald Mosely and his BUF party. He was to show that support in his newspapers; The Daily Mail led with the headline ‘hurrah for the Blackshirts’ (Briggs & Burke 2002, p211) and urged its readers to buy tickets for a BUF rally. But the rally was a disaster; the huge and largely respectable audience was horrified at the brutal way BUF stewards ejected left-wing hecklers and innocent people. As a direct result of this support the Mail lost many readers and very quickly turned around its position.
It is evident when looking at the history of the Daily Mail that it changed over time to fit with its readership. However over the 1920’s and 30’s it had started to underestimate and misunderstand the feeling of the time. The Mail had been written as if to represent its readers, but was misrepresenting them. Many of the middle and working class in Britain had started to clamour for internal issues within the country to be confronted and dealt with. The Mail missed this and was far busier writing about international affairs, readers moved on and became dissatisfied. One of the main conflicts between audience and paper was the growth of the trade unions; many of the target audience had started to join up.
As this dissatisfaction grew so the circulation dwindled. It was in the early part of the century that the first surveys were carried out to really show what people were reading. They were to capture the extent of the Mails fall from grace. In 1928 the first proper independent survey set out to show the proportion of people in certain classes and geographical positions who saw newspapers and magazines. This survey was at fault in many areas but still shows an overview of the dominance of the Mail. The survey found that overall the mail had the middle class market cornered. Although it was being challenged by the Express overall, and bettered by the Chronicle with the working class. This was the Mail’s heyday but it was to rapidly decline.
Eleven years later a survey was carried out by the London Press Exchange, in was different from the previous one in that it surveyed individuals and not households. This allowed greater detail with the age and sex of readership being considered. What it found was that it still had a strong middle class readership, although not the best, and had slipped amongst the working class. It had less than half the readership in this class group than the Express, the Herald and the Mirror.
Conclusion
Through this study of the press and it’s readership. I have come to be intrigued by the apparent ease that newspapers have in loosing and recovering an audience and also the way public opinion and whim can sway the mighty press giants. It has become greatly apparent that the only way to become and stay great is to constantly adapt and reinvent yourself to the sway of popular opinion.
Over this period of time there were great revolutions occurring in every aspect of life, from two world wars and social upheaval to great technological advances. This time could be seen as a period of limbo for society and the newspapers they read, both of which were charting new territories never experienced before. Society needed the press so that it could become a bigger part of world. The press gave society a feeling of importance and belonging. It is through these relationships that society progressed and to betray the opinions of society was a form of betrayal.
Bibliography
A. Briggs and P. Burke, A Social History of the Media. Cambridge (Polity, 2002)
A.J. Lee, The Origins of the Popular Press (London, 1976)
A, Jones and l, madden (eds.) Investigating Victorian Journalism (Basingstoke, 1990)
H. Fyfe, Northcliffe: an intimate biography. London (Allen and Unwin, 1930)
R. Pound and G. Harmsworth, Northcliffe (London, 1959)
Webliography