FAMOUS NEWSPAPER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23332, 26 October 1937, Page 12

FAMOUS NEWSPAPER

«a» FINISHES SEPARATE PUBLICATION THE MORNING POST FIRST ISSUED 1772 (From Odr Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, Oct. 2, The amalgamation of the Daily Telegraph and the Morning Post has meant the discontinuation of Britain’s oldest national daily newspaper as a separate publication. The Morning Post was first issued on November 2, 1172. Its last issue was on September 30. Two months ago it was bought by Lord Camrose, who owns the Daily Telegraph and other newspapers. The combined paper is now published as the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post. Nearly half the members of the Morning Post editorial staff were invited to join the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post; more than 200 editorial, advertising, and clerical employees were affected by the merger. The last leading article was written by the editor, Mr H. A. Gwynne, who has held the position for the past 2b years. He is 71. , “For a long time,” he wrote, the Morning Post has fought a losing battle. In the fierce stress of presentday competition new readers have been difficult to get and the advertising revenue has suffered accordingly. This has told its story in a steadily increasing annual deficit, culminating m the year ended June 30 last a year- m which financial and industrial conditions showed a decided turn for the better —with a loss of over £40,000. “ The high costs of production which a London daily newspaper must face to-day—costs which are shortly to be magnified by a steep rise in the cost of newsprint and by other causes and the ever-increasing service which is demanded from a modern newspaper, militate heavily against an organ whose appeal is necessarily a limited one. In the light of these facts, the continued publication of the Morning Post as a separate newspaper presented difficulties which it has been found impossible to overcome. . . • OLDEST DAILY “The Morning Post is the oldest daily newspaper in England. We have behind us the memories and traditions of more than a century and a-half. We have been an influence in the social and political life of our country through generation after generation; and we have had an honourable and remembered part in all the moving history of those many years. “A journal which is old enough to have recorded the American Declaration of Independence, the guillotining of King Louis and Queen Mane Antoinette. and the Battle of Trafalgar, may claim, and may feel itself to be, not a mere piece of mechanism, but a living, sentient organism, with a soul of its own. . . . , , “ Our endeavour has been to present the news decently, fairly, and accurately, without bias or distortion. We have scorned to suppress news that might be unpleasing or inconvenient to those of our own way of thinking. We have tried to allow a fair hearing to those whose views were different from our own. Nor have we hesitated to publish anything in the public interest simply because it might be to our own disadvantage. “ In our views we have tried to express the minds and the reactions of the ordinary educated Englishman and Englishwoman, and to make their influence felt. Inevitably the Morning Post has played an actively combatant part in defence of the causes which it has held dear: but I reflect with pride that, however strenuously we have fought, we have never struck a foul blow, and if we have necessarily irritated and estranged many we have not forfeited the respect of our opponents by exceeding the decent limits of controversy. “Many of the causes for which we have fought have already been justified by the event. Time, perhaps, will justify us still further; and, indeed, much that we were criticised for saying only a year ago is to-day accepted without comment from the lips of public men. If it be true that a noble aim is as a noble deed,’ we need not think that we have failed, nor that in passing from active service we have left behind us nothing that will live.” , , , The Morning Post was regarded by many people as the bulwark of diehard High Toryism in that it stood for super-respectability and influence and symbolised the “ old school tie attitude in politics, social affairs, and sport. , , ~ „ “ We are not for the cabman s wife, Colonel Ivor Fraser, a former general manager, once said. Its appeal was necessarily limited. Last June its circulation was 116.734. It had been dropping steadily. Three years before it was 125,000. It almost collapsed in the 1931 crisis. Salaries were cut, many economies made. It pulled through. But, if its appeal was thus limited, it was downright and honest in its views. It had wit and courage; it was often brilliantly written. Rudyard Kipling frequently contributed. FAMILY BUSINESS The history of the Morning Post is almost the history of one family. For nearly 90 years it was controlled by the Borthwicks. Peter Borthwick took it over in 1847. He was succeeded in 1852 by his son, Algernon, who became the first Lord Glenesk, and for half a century directed its fortunes. He was a fine old drawing room journalist, always frock-coated top-hatted. His only son died. Control passed cm Lord Glenesk’s death to his

daughter, Lady Bathurst. In 1924, “ owing to heavy taxation,” she transferred her interests to a group of Conservatives headed by the late Duke of Northumberland. Two years ago Lord Apsley, her son, resigned from the board of directors, disagreeing over the newspaper’s political views. The last link with the Borthwick family was broken. The end of the newspaper was in sight. When the Duke of Northumberland died Sir Percy Bates became chairman of directors. The three other directors were Mr J. S. Courtauld, Mr C. V. Sale, and Mr R. W. Lloyd. During the general strike in 1926 the Morning Post published the British Gazette, the Government newspaper, with Mr Winston Churchill as its editor. Armed guards protected the men who helped him to produce it. “ Tone ” has been the Morning Post’s policy for 150 years. But in its early days Henry a clergymaneditor (afterwards Sir Henry BateDudley) fought many duels over the reputations of women he attacked in print. Once the newspaper paid £40,000 damages for an outrageous libel on the daughter of a countess. Lord Camrose is believed to have paid £150,000 for the Morning Post. Since the war seven London daily newspapers have ceased independent publication. The other six were the Daily Chronicle, the Westminster Gazette, the Globe, the Pall Mall Gazette, St. James’s Gazette, and the Daily Graphic.