What Was the Contribution of the ‘Press Barons’ To the Popular Press?

In the quest of gaining new readers he launched the Daily Mirror in 1903, which was a magazine only for women, and it employed only female employees. Unfortunately, it did not very well and in 1905, it was revamped as an illustrated paper and soon came to be called ‘The Picture Paper’. In 1908, he reached the pinnacle of his career by securing control of The Times, which he transformed from a 19th-century relic into a modern newspaper. Though Lord Northcliffe died in 1922 in London the contributions made by him to the British press will always be remembered. After 1922 Harold Harmsworth, Lord Northcliffe’s brother received much of his empire. Prior to his death in 1914 Lord Northcliffe has sold his share in the Daily Mirror to Harold, now Lord Rothermere. Lord Rothermere decided to restructure the family interests and his first step towards this was seen when he sold The Times to John Jacob Astor in 1922. In an attempt to expand his establishment he formed Northcliffe Newspapers as regional chain, and bought titles in Wales, Midlands and North-East of England. In 1923 Sir Edward Hulton sold the  Evening Standard, Daily Sketch, the Sunday Herald and other titles to Rothermere and Beaverbrook for £6 million – Beaverbrook gained ownership of the Evening Standard In 1926 Rothermere’s personal wealth was £25 million and he was estimated to be the third richest man in Britain. In 1931Lord Rothermere disposed of his shares in the Mirror which enabled him to invest in the more profitable Mail. He now concentrated on the. In 1934 the Daily Mail published the first newspaper photograph and it was transmitted by beam radio from Melbourne to London. The use of innovations such as the above improved the readership of the Daily Mail.

The dynamic and sound leadership that Rothmere provided not only built a solid foundation for his newspaper empire till his death in 1940, but it also ensured that in the fast changing modern world, it was able to keep abreast of the competition and survive. The two Harmsworth brothers were very influential in the press industry and are recognized as the earliest ‘press barons’. William Berry, son of an estate agent, was very well recognized in the press industry and was acknowledged as one of the press barons of his age. Though he started out in a small town in Wales he developed into a newspaper magnate. He moved to  in 1898 where he found work on the Investors' Guardian. In 1901 William started his own newspaper, Advertising World. It was a great success and provided the capital to start a series of new publications including the popular journal, Boxing. In 1915 Berry purchased the  and improved its circulation to such an extent that it outsold its biggest rival The Observer. In 1919 he took over the . After establishing Allied Newspapers in 1924 with his brother, Gomer Berry who later became Lord Kemsley, he acquired a series of newspapers and journals including the Daily Dispatch, the Manchester Evening Chronicle and the Sunday Chronicle. After the First World War they bought The Daily Sketch and The Graphic, which was originally started out by  who believed that illustrations had the power to influence public opinion on political issues. In 1927 , decided to sell his newspaper, the , to the Berry Brothers. In 1929 William Berry was given the title of Lord Camrose.

The Berry Brothers together became the principal pace setters in the expansion of regional newspapers they achieved this success only after a long-drawn-out and costly ‘war’ with Lord Rothermere. Ultimately ‘the Berry Brothers went their own ways in the 1930’s with Kemsley taking the provincial titles and the Sunday Times and Camrose taking the magazines and the Telegraph which he turned into a passionate supporter of the Conservative Party’.The years of the First World War saw an enormous increase in the sales of the national dailies which for the first time took over the local dailies. There were some proprietors who gained enormous audiences and William Maxwell Aitken was one of them. Though the Harmsworth and Berry brothers were well established they found themselves a competitor in Aitken. Canadian by birth he moved to Britain in 1911 and the following year became the  member for Ashton-under-Lyne. He started his career in the press industry in 1916 when he acquired a controlling interest in the , which was originally started out by  in 1900. ‘He told his readers that his newspaper was "the prophet of equal opportunity and the unrelenting opponent of that system of preferred chances which gives one man an unfair opportunity over a more competent rival’. Aitken used the ideas pioneered by  and the , and turned the  into the most widely read newspaper in the world. During the First World War Aitken's skills as a mass communicator were recognised, he was appointed as the Minister of Information. The following the war he was granted the title  in 1918, after which he became Britain’s newspaper tycoon.

In 1921 he founded the Sunday Express. Looking to expand his newspaper empire he bought the Evening Standard in 1926, which was originally owned by . Although an influential newspaper, Beaverbrook was unable to make the Evening Standard into a financial success. ‘Though he owned fewer titles as compared to the others his Express group which consisted of the Daily Express, Sunday Express and Evening Standard had a combined circulation on 4.1 million by 1937’.The Daily Express remained his forte and this can be seen with the steady increase of its readership. ‘In 1919, the Daily Express sold 400,000 copies a day; by 1938 some 2,329,000 and, much later, by 1960, the astonishing figure of 4,300,000, making it the largest ever selling British newspaper’.Being an important figure in British politics and he linked his political career with his newspapers and used it as a medium of communicating his ideas to the public. Unfortunately he died in 1964 but through his newspapers Beaverbrook colourfully championed individual enterprise and British imperial interests. Lord Northcliffe, Lord Rothermere, The Berry Brothers and Lord Beaverbrook lived during the same era. This led them to becoming dominant figures in the inter-war press. ‘In 1937, for instance, they owned nearly one in every two national and local daily papers sold in Britain, as well as one in every three Sunday papers that were sold. The combined circulation of all their newspapers amounted to over 13 million’.Though there was fierce competition amongst them their rivalry lead to the overall development of the popular press.

 Even though the press barons are often accused of ‘making use of newspapers as mere engines of propaganda, manipulated in order to further their political intensions’ we cannot forget that it was their unrelenting efforts which helped us in witnessing the emergence of the popular press. This process included an increase in the different types of newspapers and periodical publications on an extraordinary scale. It also led to the gradual expansion of the total circulation of newspapers. Therefore the growth of the popular press finally brought the working class into society; who were earlier referred to as ‘those dirty people with no names’. The growth of cheap dailies helped increase literacy and brought about awareness and thus improved readership. This therefore led to the institutionalisation within the daily press. Diverse techniques of writing and presentation developed in all papers but the popular press saw the emergence of mass market dailies which drove towards entertainment of its readers rather than circulation of serious news.  The growth of the popular press supposedly dishonoured the conduct of politics by making them respond to what the people wanted than what the politicians thought was best for the nation. Though the press barons were blamed of using ‘power without responsibility’ we cannot forget that if not for them the popular press would not exist.

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References:

1. Curran, James and Seaton, Jean (1991) Power without Responsibility.London: Routledge.

2. Williams, K (1998) Get Me a Murder a Day: A History of Mass Communication in Britain. London: Arnold.

3. O’Malley, T & Solley C (2000) Regulating The Press. Pluto Press.  London: Sterling.

4. Internet sites:-

 

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