GREAT NEWSPAPER IDEAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19000, 24 October 1923, Page 8

GREAT NEWSPAPER IDEAL

FORTY JOURNALS BOUGHT. ONE MAN TO CONTROL. LONDON, October 4. Fleet street showed feverish interest in the (fig-antic newspaper deal, involving Lord Rothennere's purchase for £5,000,000 of the complete newspaper interests of Sir Edward Hulton. In all, those comprise 40 newspapers. Lord Beaverbrook, owner of the Sunday Express and the Daily Express, is joining Lord Hothennere. who will thus control a minimum of six largo London dailies, irrespective of other interests. These daily papers are: The Daily Mail, the Daily .Express, the Daily Sketch, the Daily Mirror, the Evening News, and the Evening Standard.

It is impossible to value Hulton papers. For example, the Daily Sketch is capitalised, according to Somerset House, at £2OO. Yet it has a tremendous circulation. Other papers controlled the Hulton interests are the Evening _ Standard, the Sunday Herald, the Empire News, the Daily Despatch (Manchester), the Evening Chronicle (Manchester), the Sporting Chronicle (Manchester), and various periodicals. . ~ Sir William Berrv, chief owner of the Daily Graphic and the Sunday Times, was negotiating with Sir Edward Hulton to purchase his interests but was outbidden bv Lord Rothermoie. “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 Lord Rothermere (wno succeeded his brother, the late Lord Northclifle, in the control of the Daily Mail and allied organs), others concerned in the struggle wore; — , Lord Beaverbrook, of the Daily Express, of w-hom the late Lord Northcliffe wrote: “His career is a credit to Canada. It is a happy accident of fortune that Lord Beaverbrook should have come to England. I look forward to the when the young Australians and New Zealanders, who are, I arn 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 srreat schools and universities!” Lord Beaverbrook made his money in other enterprises, but he entered the newspaper world while quite a young man. He docs not merely finance his papers. Ho rims them and devotes most of his time to them. , T . ~ Sir William Berry, whom Lord Norfcnclifl'e described as a “millionaire amateur and “a great big Berry.” He owns the Daily Graphic and the Sunday Times. Ho came from South Wales some years ago to Fleet street, and his successful invasion of the “street of ink” has been one of the outstanding develonments of recent years. Sir Edward Hulton, owner of Daily Sketch. Evening Standard, Sunday Herald, anv many other publications in Manchester and London. The son of a Manchester printer, he has amassed great wealth, but his health has not been of the best m 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 Sir William Berry was hoping to do the same. Now Lord Rothermere has come along, and, by his dramatic stroke, taken the lead. Lord Rothermere 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 povver and its consequences. Lord Rothermere. as Mr A. E. Cardin-r wrote the other day (before this new acquisition of newspaper power), _ is “armed with a weapon that makes him the most powerful individual in the State.’’ He added: “Lord Rothermere aims at ruling England as his brother ruled it. No Government is to be allowed to live that doea not take its marching orders from him.”

Lord Rothermere’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, uui also of the whole Empire, is vitally concerned.

Never before have so many popular organa of public opinion been under the control of a single individual. Many millions of readers, north, south, east, and west, will read tbe 40 newspapers which will apparently be 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 tho chief ones, are only a few.

The Daily Express subsequently announced that Lord Beaverbrook had not parted with his controlling interest in tho paper and had no intention of doing so. Tho Daily Express was not part of any trust or combine.