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British Newspapers
1860-1900
Ed King
British Library

Various source media, British Library Newpapers

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With the abolition of the duty on paper in 1861, the 1842; sales of nearly 900,000 were achieved in the
state-led constraints upon the production and sale of 1880s, reaching nearly one million by the time Lloyd
newspapers were finally lifted. Equally important was died in 1890. Reynolds's Weekly Newspaper was
the relative restraint of the government, which did not launched on 5 May 1850, and by the time George
seek to use the existing libel laws as an instrument of Reynolds died in 1879 circulation had reached 300,000
censorship. By the 1860s, British governments had copies each week.
come to realise that the daily and weekly press was no
longer a threat to the social order. Newspapers had
reached significant levels of sophistication: there were The Times continued to innovate throughout these
often four or eight pages per issue and very many were decades. Stereotyping was introduced—multiple
broadsheet in size which meant that six or seven formes for printing from originals. Walther presses
columns of tightly packed text could be composed and were introduced in 1869, with each press producing
printed. Whilst the majority of provincial newspapers 12,000 sheets per hour. American Hoe feeder presses
were published weekly, London newspapers often were introduced in 1888. Type composing machines
appeared daily. were fully introduced by 1880, speeding up
composition. By1899, Wicks rotary type casting
machines were in use which meant that new type could
London Newspapers be made each day. Fast printing presses, stereotyping,
machine composing—these developments were all led
An early portent of the expansion of press circulation
by The Times throughout the late 1800s.
was created by the lowering in price of The Daily
Telegraph in September 1855, from 2d to 1d. This
resulted in an enormous increase in the circulation of
Each issue of The Times was sold for 4d in 1855 and this
the paper and by 1862 sales of The Daily
was reduced to 3d from 1 October 1861. Between 1884
Telegraph exceeded 140,000 copies per day. Edward
and 1902 more than eighty issues of The
Lawson (later Baron Burnham) edited the paper until
Times contained twenty-four pages per issue. 140,000
1885 when he became its owner. H.D. Traill was its
copies of the paper were printed to convey the news of
chief political leader writer for fifteen years, 1882-1897.
the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901. The
The paper was the organ of the middle classes; it
political stance of the paper was largely Liberal during
captured a large portion of the reading public from The
the era of political reform but, after 1880, the
Times and paid to equip H.M. Stanley's second
newspaper became more Conservative, Unionist and
expedition to Africa in 1875-7. The success of The Daily
Imperialist in outlook. It was against Irish Nationalism
Telegraph was matched by other newspapers. The
and remained strong in the depth of its foreign
Standard was taken over by James Johnston in 1857;
correspondence.
his success at editing and managing the paper was
such that by 1874 its circulation was 185,000 copies
daily. Edward Lloyd launched his Lloyd's Weekly News in
The Daily News was a leading organ of Liberal ideas using The Great Eastern steamship attracted great
from its beginnings in 1846. It championed the North in interest and very many contemporary newspaper
the American Civil War, the cause of Italian articles and books were published about the cable-
independence during 1859-60, and the emancipation of laying work and its success. Newspapers were the
Bulgaria from Turkish rule from 1876-80. In 1868, the direct beneficiaries of the high speed telegraph
price of the Daily News was reduced on Monday 8 June communications on both sides of the Atlantic from this
1868 to 1d from 3d. The paper was an exponent of time onwards.
Liberal imperialism during the administration of Lord
Rosebury 1894-1895. In 1901 George Cadbury became
proprietor and the orientation of the paper changed to a Gradually there was a rise in the status and economic
pro-Liberal stance. position of journalists. More was expected of them, so
their "professionalism" had to keep pace with
expectations relating to the quality of their work. If
During the 1860s and later, a number of features patronage of the journalist had been a feature of the
developed which began to influence the form and first half of the nineteenth century, then there was an
content of newspapers. There was the establishment of increasing tendency, during the second half of the
the Central Press in 1863; it was a pro-Liberal century, for journalists to come under the influence of
organisation, until purchased in 1870 by those who owners who were far more commercially minded, and
favoured the Tories. Partly as a response, the National accordingly demanded that journalists provide writing
Press Agency was established in 1873 with Liberal which satisfied the demands of a business.
opinions. The Press Association was founded in 1868 as
a non-partisan organisation; however, it served mainly
Liberal papers. Julius Reuter founded his news agency This was a period when politicians became far more
in 1851; he made extensive use of telegraph lines to aware of the power of the press, particularly after the
relay quickly foreign news and financial information. By passing of the second Reform Act of 1867, and the third
1860 most of the London dailies subscribed to the Reform Act of 1884. As a consequence, politicians
service that he provided. These press agencies greatly courted the owners of newspapers, their editors and
assisted the quality of information provided to journalists, in an attempt to ensure that newspapers
newspapers, and proved to be especially valuable to would act as the outlet for their views. In return,
provincial ones, as they could gather news summaries owners, editors and journalists could advance
much faster than previously. themselves in their careers and (by the standards of the
day) earn significant sums for their work. Journalists
could impress their own views upon their friends and
The role of press agencies was greatly enhanced by the acquaintances. They saw themselves serving as
worldwide development of undersea cables. The laying intermediaries between the two major political parties
of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable in 1866 and 1867 (Liberal and Conservative), between the party members
and their leaders. Editors such as John Morley, W.T. The Conservatives progressively sought to gain control
Stead, T.P. O'Connor, J.A. Spender, C.P. Scott and J.L. of more newspapers. Those within the Conservative
Garvin all had this role. Political parties in power sphere were: Globe, Morning Post, The Standard, The
learned to attempt to control or influence newspaper Times and Yorkshire Post. Amongst these papers,
proprietors and journalists by the use of the honours Algernon Borthwick became editor of the Morning Post
system—with knighthoods, baronetcies and peerages from 1852, and revived its fortunes. He became
being used. For example, Alfred Harmsworth was made proprietor in 1877. The outlook of the paper was
a baronet in 1903 and created Baron Northcliffe in Conservative, Imperialist and Protectionist. The price of
1905. the paper reduced to 1d from 3d in 1881, with a
consequent rise in circulation. For The
Standard, William Mudford took charge from 1878. He
During these decades, perceptions of political support had been editor of the paper since 1874. In the mid-
for newspapers sharpened. For the provincial press, 1880s, The Standard was selling more than 250,000
Liberal opinion and tendencies overlaid the landowning copies daily. However, the paper did not adapt to the
and established Anglican Church interests of the patterns of "new journalism" and circulation declined
earlier part of the century. However, from the 1880s, towards the end of the century.
the Conservative Party realised that the press could
exercise considerable influence over the electorate,
and it sought to deny Liberal influence over the press in New Journalism
London and in the provinces. This process was assisted
There were many features to the phenomenon of New
by division in the Liberal Party from the 1880s onwards
Journalism. These were noticed by contemporaries as
over Irish Home Rule, imperial expansion, the second
it developed. The editor W.T. Stead was one of its
Boer War, and social and economic reform. These
leading proponents. He employed women journalists,
issues all divided and weakened the Liberal press.
even paying them salaries equal to those of men. Near
Consequently, there was a relative decline of the
the end of the century in 1895, the Society of Women
Liberal press after its "golden age" of the 1870s and
Journalists was established, to protect and champion
1880s. Papers known to be Liberal were: Birmingham
the status of women within journalism. Stead
Daily Post, Daily Chronicle, Daily News, Daily
contributed to the concept through what poet and
Telegraph, Echo, Leeds Mercury, Manchester Evening
writer Matthew Arnold described as 'Government by
News, Manchester Guardian, Morning
Journalism'. In Arnold's view, this amounted to the
Advertiser, Northern Daily Express, Newcastle Daily
establishment of a process which would communicate
Chronicle, Northampton Post, Northern Echo and Pall
the will of the people. Newspapers would create
Mall Gazette.
campaigns to agitate for change, to force the
government to pay attention and to make legislation to
do what the people wanted (or needed). Conspicuous
examples of this were Samuel Plimsoll's work to save
the lives of British merchant sailors in the 1870s and Additionally, the layout of newspapers adapted to new
1880s, and William Gladstone's speeches against the circumstances—new kinds of stories and typographical
Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria after 1876, which, innovation made newspapers more attractive to
together with his exertions in the Midlothian campaign readers. There were cross-headings, brief paragraphs,
of 1879-80, helped him win the general election of 1880. informative headlines, vivid and profuse illustrations,
The role of the press as the "Guardian of the attractive design, better format and newsprint, larger
Guardians" was self-professed but flawed, as: type and greater use of the front page for news.
Newspapers such as The Graphic (1870); The Illustrated
Police News (1864), The Penny Illustrated Paper (1861)—
... this concept of the press serving Britain and its empire as the all displayed these features consistently. These
watchdog of government was chimerical, largely because (after the
developments all combined to make many newspapers
1880s) the newspaper became ever more a commercial property,
a commercial success. However, time has shown that
increasingly concerned with the quest for advertising and greater
sales. To retain and increase their readership and their advertising the cheap and tawdry content kept out of the market
clientele, the papers sought more to amuse and entertain than to place the valuable, the authentic and the serious. The
educate and to inform. (Baylen)
contention of New Journalism was that people are
more swayed by interest and sympathy than by
argument.
The content of newspapers also reflected change; there
were women's pages, gossip columns, sports coverage,
parliamentary sketches, political commentary,
Out of these events, the rise of the businesses owned
extensive use of illustrations, sensational exposés and
and led by Alfred Harmsworth drove further
'occasional notes' columns. Other innovations included:
developments. He had published Comic
brief leaders, descriptive parliamentary sketches, the
Cuts(1890), Illustrated Chips (1890) and Forget-me-
'London Letter', the American-style interview and
Not (1891), and their success enabled him to
human-interest story, a stress on news rather than
contemplate the creation of a daily newspaper. The
interpretative commentaries, more but concise foreign
mass circulation daily was created with the first issue
news reports and edited versions of political speeches
of the Daily Mail on 4 May 1896. Sales of 397,215 copies
(rather than verbatim reports). In the 1880s and 1890s,
were made on that day; sales rose to 400,000 by 1898;
there was more emphasis on sport, a reflection of the
between 1899-1902 sales exceeded one million copies
increased leisure of all classes. Long passages of
per day. Competitors emerged rapidly with the Daily
parliamentary debate gave way to more space devoted
Express launched by C. Arthur Pearson on 24 April
to sensational revelations. The success of serialised
1900. The Daily Mirror was launched by Alfred
fiction in magazines (such as The Strand Magazine)
Harmsworth on 2 November 1903 as a sister paper to
drove the introduction of the serialised novel in
the Daily Mail. The first editor was Mary Howarth,
newspapers and this increased the entertainment
supported by a staff of experienced females, and the
element.
paper badged itself as the first daily paper for
gentlewomen. At the start of the twentieth century, the
modern printed newspaper emerged from these new
productions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baylen, J.O. The British Press, 1861-1918. In: The Encyclopaedia of the
British Press, 1422-1992. Edited by Dennis Griffiths. (1992).

Brown, Lucy. Victorian News and Newspapers. Oxford: Clarendon

Encyclopaedia Britannica. Eleventh Edition. Cambridge: At the

Griffiths, Dennis. Fleet Street. Five Hundred Years of the Press. London:
The British Library, 2006.

Koss, Stephen. The Rise and Fall of the Political Press in Britain.
London: Hamilton, 1984.

Lee, Alan John. The Origins of the Popular Press in England: 1855-1914.
London: Croom Helm, 1976.

Wiener, Joel H. (ed). Papers for the Millions: the New Journalism in
Britain, 1850's to 1914. New York; London: Greenwood, 1988.
CITATION
King, Ed: “British Newspapers 1860-1900.” British Library
Newspapers. Detroit: Gale, 2007.

© Cengage Learning 2007

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