REVELATIONS OF THE NEWSPAPER PRESS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 68, 24 April 1852, Page 2

REVELATIONS OF THE NEWSPAPER PRESS.

[From the " Critic."]

The Report of the Newspaper Stamp Committee, appointed by the House of Commons during the last Session, has just been issued, and it contains a document of extreme interest and value, as showing the actual progress of the newspaper press since the year 1837, giving in tabular form the number of stamps issued to every newspaper in the United Kingdom in every year from the introduction of the penny stamp down to the close of 1850. This is an evidence which cannot err ; its appearance was quite unexpected, and therefore no preparation could have been made for it, by jany Journal, by the old trick of obtaining an extra supply of stamps for the purpose of swelling the return of the year. Extended over so many years, it tells a tale which, read with curious eye, will reveal many new and deeply interesting facts as to the direction and progress of newspaper literature, where it has most thriven, where inclined, and thus it will suggest an inquiry into the causes of advancement or decay.

The first phenomenon that strikes us is the almost universal decline in the circulation of newspapers during the last three or four years. With very few exceptions indeed, all have diminished, many of them to an extent that must amount almost to annihilation.

Of the entire newspaper press of London the only papers that have increased in circulation during the last four years are The Times, The Atlas, The Athenceum, The Builder, Bell's Life in London, The Critic, The Evening Mail, The Guardian, The Gazette of Fashion, The Herald of Peace, The Illustrated News, The Lancet, Lloyd's Weekly Neios, The Mining Journal, The Morning Advertiser, The Nonconformist, The Neivs of the World, The Observer, The Record, The United Service Gazette, The Watchman, and The Weekly Times. Thus, only twenty-two newspapers, out of about three hundred that are published in London, have increased their circulation during the last four years, while most of them have, as we shall presently show, suffered an enormous decrease.

The most remarkable increase has been in the The Times, which has trebled its circulation since the date of the returns, presenting a steady advance every year. In 1838 its circulation was 30,65,000. * In 1850 it was no less than 11,900,000.

A curious and instructive fact revealed by these returns is, the progress of the cheap newspapers. Of these there are three, published at 3'/., viz., The News of the World, Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, and The Weekly Times. All of these have had an enormous increase of circulation.

The only other newspaper besides the above which has made any extraordinary progress is The Illustrated London News, whose numbers were in 1846, 2,367,067, and in 1850,3,467,007, or an average weekly circulation of 66,692. This extraordinary progress of the cheap newspapers has been accompanied with an almost proportionate decline of others that formerly enjoyed extensive patronage. The effect of price is remarkably shown in the case of The Daily News. Its circulation fell, when its price was raised to od., from 3,500,638 in 1848, to 1,375,000 in 1849, very nearly two-thirds, and there appears to be no tending to improvement, but, on the contrary, the decline still proceeds. In 1850 it had fallen to 1,152,000, its daily average last year being only 3,680. Of the Daily Newspapers, all have declined except the Times, nor has this been sudden, but steadily continuous and is still proceeding. It has been most marked in the case of the Morning Chronicle, which has been reduced from -2,750,000 in 1838, to 912,547 1850, and this in spite of all its spirited efforts and the expences of its articles on labour and the poor. The Morning Herald, also, has enormously fallen off, its circulation in 1838 having been 1,925,000, which in 1850, was reduced to 1,139,000.

The Standard is even in a still more consumptive condition. Its circulation, which in 1837, whs 1,330,000, was in 1850 reduced to 492,000, being an average of only 1,575 per day !

The Morning Post maintains its position with little loss, and so does the Sun.

Hence we learn these singular facts; first, that there has been an increase of 4,717,616 in the total annual circulation of the daily papers

since the reduction of the stamp duty, and that the Times has not only secured the whole of that increase, but has taken from the other papers no less than 4,127,335 of their former circulation !

If examined with reference to their politics, some interesting results appear, for which we were certainly quite unprepared, and politicians might, perhaps, profit by the facts disclosed, inasmuch as the politics of a newspaper are usually the politics of its readers. We are at present surveying only the daily papers, which are patronized by a higher class of the community, and which are, therefore, a tolerably fair index of the tendency of opinion among them. The facts are as follow:

The increase has been exclusiiely among the moderate Liberal papers.

Most of the Radical papers have declined considerably.

All the Conservative papers have enormously diminished.

The increase in the circulation of the Times has been just one-third the decrease in that of all the other daily papers together, thus verifying its boast, that it is the representative of public opinion in England. Lastly, the fact forces itself upon notice, however accounted for, whether from the poverty of their agricultural patrons, or from change of opinion, we know not, but so it is, that all the papers,advocating. protection, without a single exception have suffered a grievous and progressive decline in circulation, and this is equally shown in the weekly as in the daily press. Thus, since its persistance in advocacy of Protection, the Morning Herald has from 2,018,026 in 1845, to 1,139,000 in 1850; the Standard from 846,000, in the same year, to 492,000, in 1850; the Britania from 257,000 to 163,000; the John Bull from 132,000 to 110,000 ; and Bell's Weekly Messenger from 735,000 703,500. Another interesting fact is, that almost all the Religious Papers have either increased or maintained their ground, while their political contemporaries have been declining, proving the increased interest taken by the community in matters connected with religion. In future papers we shall review the progress of the iveekly and provincial press.