SUNDAY NEWSPAPERS

Evening Star, Issue 22382, 4 July 1936, Page 6

SUNDAY NEWSPAPERS

MAN WHO SHOCKED LONDON Good old Doctor Johnson, in whoso time it may be said that the newspaper Press was firmly established, boasted that his ‘ Sunday Monitor,’ founded in 1780, was “ the first Sunday newspaper ever published in the kingdom.” Ho must bo given credit for a good idea (writes “ Old Timer,” in ‘Newspaper News’). • ‘ The Monitor ’ survived, not without difficulty, for half a century, but before it died, in 1829, throe of Fleet street’s present most .flourishing Sunday newspapers were established —‘ The Observer ’ (1791), ‘ Tho Weekly Dispatch * (now ‘ Sunday Dispatch, 1801), and ‘ Tho Sunday Times ’ (1882), There were other competitors for the Sunday Monitor,’ of course, but as Crahbe put it, “ many were issued to die before the next revolving morn.” Although Johnson was tho originator of the Sunday Press, tho “Father” of Sunday newspapers as wo know them to-day was John Doll, who founded 1 Bell’s Weekly Messenger ’ in 1790 and? ‘ The Weekly Dispatch ’ in 1801, besides other papers. Historians tell us little about We know that he was a representative old-timer of Fleet street, for Leigh Hunt tells us that ho was a typical Bohemian of tho old school, with a taste for wines, ankles, and pretty books, , Bell was a bookseller when he descended upon London at tho ago of 21. He was a practical typographer, and his new typo faces revolutionised English printing. As latter-day typographical styles are evolved to make newspapers more easy to read, so did Bell in his day do much to that end. It was he who abolished the long “ s,” and that was no small contribution to readability. Bell was more than a typographer. His genius did not stop at abolishing the long “ a,” and he was no scissors-and-paste man. Ho wrote powerful articles, crusaded against tho scandals of child labour, forced labour, bad housing, flogging in the Array, barbaric treatment of criminals, and the nuisance to those who wore content with tho state of social injustice that existed at the turn of the eighteenth century. One can believe what has been said of him—that he was tho very devil of a fellow. He, sturdy Imperialist, awoke Britain to tho danger of Napoleon’s menacing dictatorship across the English Channel. Ho was the Empire’s Crusader of his day.

NOVEL CIRCULATION METHODS. Not only did lie remind tlic moneygrabbera of the industrial _ revolution, and the politicians of their x-esponsi-bilitics. His enterprise shocked other London newspaper proprietors. He raised his circulations by unorthodox methods, and thought nothing of going to balls and masquerades dressed as a newspaper seller, distributing copies of his papers. He scandalously ignored the trade customs of his day and employed grotesquely clothed vagabonds to go about the country blowing horns and drawing * attention to his nawspaners. Dell’s news-hair was strongly developed. Besides his enterprise m other directions he knew that the way to sell newspapers was to print stories that the others had not got. When he became his own war correspondent and made what he called “ a perilous excursion through Flanders,” Jus jealous

competitors described him ns a bloody satellite of Robespierre and “ a promoter of Jacobite heresies. On one occasion his enterprise Jan<le<l him in the bankruptcy court, but Bell “ came back.” When he died at the a"e of 86 he was a wealthy man. Robert Bell’s flair for news and publishing was shared by his son, John Browne Bell, who founded, in 1841, the ‘ News of the World,’ tho circulation of which to-day is approaching 4,000,000. He also died a rich man. Present-day Sunday newspapers cater for every taste They range from the sedate ‘ Observer ’ (owned by Viscount Astor and edited by J. L. Garvin) and tho ‘ Sunday Times ’ (a Gamrose paper thought by some people to be connected with ‘ The Times,' but of course there is no such connection), down to the “ populars ; Sir Emsley Carr s ‘ News of the World,’ Odham s the People ’ (both of over 3,000,000 circulation), Lord Rothermere’s ‘Sunday Dispatch,’ Lord Beaverbrook’s ‘ Sunday Express,’ Lord Rothermere’s ‘Sunday Pictorial,’ and Lord Camrose’s ‘ Sunday Graphic ’ (all in the million class). To-day, all newspapers aro illustrated, so we must call tho ‘ Sunday Pictorial’ and tho ‘Sunday Graphic 44 picture ** papers. Both were born in 1915 (the ‘ Sunday Graphic ’ as the ‘Sunday Herald’). Doth jumped to success and showed that! tho daily picture papers, the ‘ Daily Mirror, (1903) and the ‘ Dally. , Sketch (1909) had whetted the British public for well-printed pages of news pictures on Sundays also. , Lower down in the circulation scale and difficult to place in any definite class is the ‘ Sunday Referee,’ founded by “ Pendragon ” in 1877, and tor many years known as the Sunday theatrical paper. .... „ „ Famous -writers, including Geo. K. Sims, have been associated with the • Referee,’ now owned by Isadore Ostrey, millionaire film magnate and financier who is well-tipped the next Baron of Fleet Street, I‘ilmina"natc Ostrer bought the paper from Sir Oswald Stoll in 1931, thus carrying on the entertainment-business associatX The ‘ Referee ’ has probably had more changes of editorship in recent years than any other newspaper in Fleet street. It is generally considered to have brighter prospects than over before. It has used modern methods of exploitation, such as ladio broadcast announcements from the Continent which, until dropped, put it out of favour with tho Newspaper 1 roprietors’ Association, severe frowner on radio advertising.

OLD PAPER’S CHALLENGE. The latest challenger for big Sunday circulation is ‘ Reynolds,’ eignty-six-ycar-old weekly newspaper that was 'owned by the lata Lord Dalzml before it was bought by the Co-operative Movement for propaganda purposes a few years ago. It was founded in 18.>0 by George William MacArthur Reynolds, a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat and he, like John Bell, was the very devil of a fellow. , , Like Bell had done half a century before, Reynolds crusaded against harsh treatment in the Army, bad social conditions, and anything that reacted against the people. His editorial tormula was an old-established and simple one; When he saw a head that he didn’t like, ho hit it. Unlike Imperialist John Bell, he was a virulent Republican, and did not hesitate to say so. An ardent supporter of the Chartist Movement, ho presided at the Trafalgar Square meeting which sympathised .with the revolutionists who had ' been expelled by King Louis Philippe from Paris. He also presided nt the meeting held at Kensington Common from which the “ Monster Petition ” was despatched to Parliament. This so frightened the Duke of Wellington that he called out the troops and half of the well-to-do residents of London, who were sworn in as special constables to check what was believed to be the prelude to a British revolution.

He was the only British journalist to defend the Paris 'Communards of 1871. and it is said of him that if his mind had not always harked hack to the French Revolution, but instead had

visualised ’ the potentialities of the Trade Union Mo-seraent, his pen and paper might have been employed with much greater weight. Reynolds was the Edgar Wallace of his day. Before he started his paper lie wrote thrillers that made him a wealthy man. He was also a regular leader writer for the ‘ Weekly Dispatch,’ but was dismissed because of his too-outspoken - attacks, on, social conditions. Then it was that he turned one of his occasional publications mte ‘ Reynold’s.% ' Dr Johnson’s idea - that there was room for a Sunday newspaper has developed into a vast organisation. Sir Emsley Carr, editor of ‘ The News of the World,’ in an address on ‘ The Sunday Press’ tp the Institute of_ Journalists some time ago, gave illuminating figures. ~ ■ i “ There are,” ho said, fourteeif Sunday papers in the British Isles with a combined circulation of 17,000,000. This is two millions more than the daily circulation of their secular contemporaries. Sir Emsley summed up the popularity of the “Sunday newspaper as not due to any particular feature: It is a human document representing the daily life of the average man not neglecting tho more serious problems, but touching upon the lighter forms of life, bringing humour, brightness, and real humanity into everyone s existence.” . , ~ , So, Dr Johnson, it was a good idea!