GREAT NEWSPAPER DEAL

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11661, 27 October 1923, Page 12

GREAT NEWSPAPER DEAL

FORTY JOURNALS BOUCHT

ONE MAX TO CONTROL.

LONDON, October 4

Fleet street showed feverish mterosfc in the gigantic newspaper deal, involving Lord ltothormore’s purchase lor £o,000,(>00 of the complete newspaper interests of Sir Edward Hulton. In all, these comprise 40 newspapers. Lord Beaverbrook, owner of “The Sunday Express” and ‘‘The Daily Ex press,” is joining L-ord Rotherniere. who will thus control a minimum of six large London dailies, irrespective of other interests. These daily papers are* “The Daily Mail,” “The .Dadv Express” (the purchase of the ‘‘Ex* press” has since been denied), ‘‘The Daily Sketch,” ‘‘The Daily Mir*or,” ‘The Evening News,” and “The Evening Standard ” It. is impossible to value the Bulton papers. For example, “The Daily Sketch” is capitalised, according to Somerset House, at £fl oo. Yet it haa a tremendous circulation.

Other papers controlled by the Hutton interests are “The Evening Standard,” “The Sunday Herald,” “The Empire Nows,” “The Daily Dispatch” “The Evening Chronicle” “Tlie Sportirg Chroiiivlc” (Manchester) and various periodicals.

Sir William Berry, chief owner of “The Daily Graphic” and “The Sunday Times,” was negotiating with Sir Edward Hulton to purchase his interests, but was outbidden hy Lord Rotherinerc.

This reported £5,000,000 deal is the culmination of a behind-the-scenes battle for supremacy that has been going on for many months among newspaper millionaires The prize was power—the control of the British popular Press. Besides Lcxd Rotliermere—who succeeded his brother, the late Lord Northcliffe, in the control of “The ’Daily Mali” and allied organs, others concerned in the struggle were: Lord Beaverbrook, of the “Daily Express,” of whom the late Lord Northoliffe wrote: “His career 16 a credit to Canada. It is a happy accident of fortune that Lord Beaverbrook ehould have come to England. I look forward’ to the day when the young Australians and New Zealanders, who are, I am sorry to say, also going to the United States, will come here, to the Motherland, where there is plenty of opportunity for their activity. Would that more came to our great schools and universities!” Lord Beaverbrook made his money in other enterprises, but he entered the newspaper world while quite a young man. He does not merely finance his papers. He runs them and devotes most of his time to them. .

Sir William Berry, whom Lord Northoliffe described as a “millionaire amateur” and ‘a great big Berry.” He owns the “Daily Graphic” and *the “Sunday Times.” He came from South Wales some years ago to Fleet street, and his successful invasion of the “street of int” has been one of the Outstanding developments of recent years. Sir Edward Hulton, owner of the “Daily Sketch,” “Evening Standard,” “Sunday Herald,” and many other publications in Manchester and London. The eon of a Manchester printer, he has amassed great wealth, but his health has not been ’of the best in recent years.

There were other millionaires in the background, but these were the chief players in the game. The gossip of Fleet street was that Lord Beaverbrook was hoping to “swallow” Sir E. Hulton, and that S'ir William Berry was hoping to do the same. Now Lord Rotherniere has come along, and, by his dramatic stroke, taken the lead.

Lord Rotherniere is reported to be worth £14,000,000. He is a genius of finance and ambitious for power. There will be excited speculation, not only among journalists, but also among the public, as to the hidden weaving of this successful bid for power and its consequences.

Lord Rothermere’s amazing newsdinor wrote the other day (before this new acquisition of newspaper power) is “armed with a weapon tha/t makes him the most powerful individual in the State/’ He added: “Lord Rotihermere aims at ruling England as his brother ruled- it. No Government is to be allowed to live that does not take its marching orders from him.” Lord Rothefmore’s amazing newspaper deal—surely the vastest thing of its kind in history—opens a new chapter in which the public, not only of Great Britain, but also of the whole Empire, is vitally concerned. Never before have 60 many popular organs of public opinion been under the control of a single individual. Many millions of readers, north, couth, east, and west, will read the 40 newspapers, which will apparently he Lord Rothermere’s mouthpiece. * For instance, among daily papers, “The Daily Mail” has a sale of about 1,800,000 copies daily; “The Daily Mirror” (over 1,000,000); “The Evening News” (800,000); and other approximate sales are probably as follows: —“Daily Express” (850,000); “Daily Sketch” (about 900,000). And these, although the chief ones, are only a few.