THE PROPRIETORS OF TITBITS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXIX, Issue 11131, 18 February 1886, Page 2

THE PROPRIETORS OF TITBITS.

• "• The London correspondent of the Auckland .Star says : — No Liberal viotory during the recent elections hss created more surprise than that of Mr tfewnes for the Newmarket division of Cambridgeshire. He was totally unknown to the electora personally, and had moreover to fight against a great local magnate, yet Mr Gladstone's good friend " Hodge," and the i aot that he (Newnes) was proprietor of " Tit Bits," pulled him throagh triumphantly. Who will say after this that there is nothing in paste and scissors P Five years ago, Mr Newnes was an ob* eoure clerk in a Manchester broker's,with as much apparent ohance of making a for* tune as you, dear reader, or myself. He had a habit of slicing out any little bits in newspapers that interested him, and sticking them into a scrap-book. One day the notion occurred to him that a weekly journal composed entirely of soraps taken from books, papers, magazines, &c, might be read. He consulted several journalist friends, but they naturally didn't think much of the idea. I shouldn't have done either. • Newnes, however, fancied his notion, and as he had saved a few pouads, resolved to give it a trial. His sister helped him, and with the aid of aoissors,"a paste* pot, and two or threeAmerican papers a friend gave him, the pair oreated " Tit Bits." Whether it was the name or the notion, or both combined (who can say ?), bat " Tib Bits " at once hit the fancy of the Lancashire milßiaada, both lads and . lasses. It sold iu hundreds outside the great manufactories every Saturday, and before three months had elapsed, was a household word all over the north of England. Presently, of oourse, the circulation spread to London, where, in the course of a very short time, hall a score of rivals aro^e. Some of these were good and some'were bad, but. none in the least affected the. 'original " Tit Bits," which floated its proprietor steadily into fortune. Newnes per* sonally is not responsible for the numerous "happy thoughts" (Tit-Bit villa, the Tasce scheme, &c.) associated' with the paper. They spring mostly from the London editor, who is a Yan* kee, I'm told. As a property, "Tits Bits" has, of oourse, grown enormously valuable, its expenses beiog infinitesimal and its income very large. Tho ciroula- ' ~ tion even exoeeds that of the "Familw^ Herald." So much for Mr Tit-Bitlr M.P.