Dr. Carolina Matos

Lecturer in Sociology

Department of Sociology

City University London

WK 3 – The Invention of Journalism: the industrialisation of the press and the second

information revolution

Core readings

Essential reading Curran, J. and J. Seaton (2010) Power Without Responsibility - 7th Edition.

Routledge. Routledge. Chapter 4. Highly recommended reading Briggs, A. and P. Burke (2002) A Social History of the Media: From

Gutenberg to the Internet. Polity. Chapter 5. Chalaby. J. (1998) The Invention of Journalism. Macmillan. Chapter 2.

Additional reading Seymour-Ure, C. (1996) The British Press and Broadcasting since 1945.

Blackwell. Chapter 3.

Key pointsThe British press before and after the abolition of the taxes on

knowledge Press freedom and the growth of the UK pressUK newspapers: political alignments and ideologyThe second information revolution and the 19th century

industrial revolutionThe emergence and impact of the press industryTelegraph lines and the rotary pressThe development of journalismConclusions Readings for next week

The industrialization of the press: some trends

Britain developed a newspaper industry earlier than most European nations

The end of direct state censorship was a turning point in the development of the British press. The 18th century saw a sustained growth of the London press: by 1760 there were 89 newspapers published in the capital city.

The 19th century industrial revolution provokes the second information revolution

The press becomes an industry and independent field of discursive production

Journalism develops finallyJournalism is a way of thinking and writing about social reality that is

distinct from politics and literature

The industrialization of the press* During the half-century following the repeal of the ‘taxes on

knowledge’ during the period of 1853-61, a number of radical newspapers closed down or were incorporated into mainstream journalism

Historians attribute their decline to a change in public opinion. This also occurred during a period of rapid press expansion

The collapse of Chartism in the early 1850s produced a wave of disillusion, with trade unions becoming more inward looking and seeking to improve their own working conditions

A predominantly right-wing press came into existence, including newspapers such as the People (1881), Daily Mail (1896), Daily Express (1900) and the Daily Mirror (1903)

Lucy Brown argued that the political elite devoted more time and skill to cultivating the press (* Curran and Seaton, 2012)

The industrialization of the press*

Some argue that the decline was a consequence also of the ‘commercialization’ of the ‘popular press’

Newspapers that were business ventures came into existence, and which concentrated on entertainment

During the first half of the 19th century, many left-wing papers evolved from being journals of opinion into broadsheets newspapers publishing news as well as commentary.

During the period, newspapers like the News of the World and Lloyds Weekly also emerged

Curran and Seaton ask: why was the field of popular press coverage and entertainment taken up by the commercial press?

1. The British press during the first half of the 19th century- Around 10 daily newspapers at most in the UK- A press for the elite- A political press

(A “bourgeoisie public sphere”)

What was the impact on the press of the abolition of the “taxes on knowledge”?: This was the trigger mechanism that unleashed the industrialisation and

modernisation of the British pressLower prices, increased sales and the development of one print

technology to service the market Rotary presses were introduced in the 1860 and 70s, and were replaced

by web rotary machines of increasing size and sophistication in late Victorian England.

The British press before and after the abolition of the Taxes on Knowledge

1830 (formation of a Whig Cabinet)

Ministerial newspapers (Whig)

Opposition newspapers (Tory)

The Morning Chronicle The Morning Post

The Times The Standard

The Courier The Albion

The Globe

The Sun

The Morning Herald

The British press before and after the abolition of the Taxes on Knowledge

The journalism field: Journalistic norms and standards were not yet establishedAnthony Smith: ‘The preoccupation of the journalist lay quite outside the

accurate reporting of facts; there were no facts more important, nor more urgent, than the fact of factions.

Another historian, W.A. Speck, writes that the accounts of the British press were ‘so shamelessly biased in favour of one side or the other that it is impossible to take any of them at face value. They are scarcely even pretending to report occurrences objectively or accurately’.

The British press before and after the abolition of the Taxes on Knowledge

What more?:The rise in the fixed costs made it more difficult for people with limited funds to break into mass publishing, generating a relationship of economic inequalityLeading publishers were able to obtain large economies of scale, forcing up the costs of newspaper publishingNational newspapers became substantial enterprises, with growing staff costsThe combination of rising expenditure and lower cover prices forced up the circulation levels that newspapers needed to achieve in order to be profitableStatistic show the privileged position of capital in the modern press(in Curran and Seaton, 2012, 27).

The second information revolution in the context of the 19th century industrial revolution

The industrialisation of the production of newspapers The development of the press as an industry and independent field of discursive production

The development of journalism (or its ‘invention’) Emergence of new fact-centred discursive practices such

as the news report and the interview Emergence of new professional standards, such as

objectivity News and information became more abundant, more recent,

more frequent, more international, more factual and more reliable.

The industrialisation of the press*

The newspaper industry went through rapid industrialization in the second half of the 19th century

I.e. In 1868, the rotary press was introduced which made possible larger print runs

The second stage came in 1876 with the introduction of linotype which increased the quality of the product and increased print runs

Between 1860 and 1900, the electric telegraph, telephone, typewriter and the means to reproduce photographs were invented

I.e. The telegraph assisted in the growth of the provincial press by permitting it to gather news for itself, reducing its dependency on the London press* (Williams, 1998).

A rotary press

The emergence of the press industry

Growth of the total number of newspapersNumber of daily newspapers: 1836: 11 daily newspapers were published in Britain; 1868: 43; 1886: 139; 1900: 172 (all-time record)

Increase in average circulation: Between the 1850s and 1890s, the average daily circulation of the main London daily newspapers was multiplied by 40, to reach 200,000 copies. “The industrialization of the press, with its accompanying rise in publicity costs, led to a programme transfer of ownership and control of the popular press from the working class to wealthy businessmen, while the dependence on advertising encouraged the absorption…of the early radical press and stunted its development before the First World War.”(Curran and Seaton, 2012, 27)

The expansion of the press and the “invention” of journalism (in Curran and Seaton, 2012; Chalaby, 1998)

“The launch of publications was stimulated by large external subsidies given to those who conformed to marketing requirements. Between 1866 and 1896, the number of magazines increased form an estimated 557 to 2097….

Increase in the number of national daily and Sunday papers, founded between 1880 and 1918

Expansion in newspaper consumption, with average sales raising from 85 million in 1851 to 5604 million in 1920. Sunday and local daily papers achieved aggregate circulations of 13.5 million and 9.2 million by 1920.

Argument on the “free marketplace of ideas” The new press weakened the radical press, and encouraged their readers to

identify with political parties controlled by the Establishment (i.e. the new local dailies that emerged between 1855 and 1860 were affiliated with the Liberal Party)

The role of advertising in the expansion of the commercial press

Strategic role occupied by advertising after the repeal of the advertisement duty in 1853

Most newspapers had been reliant on advertising, but it was only with the abolition of the advertisement duty in 1853 that popular press advertising came fully into its own.

“The surge in advertising expenditure, combined with the repeal of the stamp and paper duties, transformed the economic structure of the popular press.” (Curran and Seaton, 2012).

Important: Political considerations also played a role in the choice of papers that the advertisers chose to advertise in (i.e. resulting in the marginalization of more militant papers). It also put pressures on the more radical press to move upmarket if it was to survive.

The abolition of the taxes on knowledge and the mass circulation press

Repeal of the ‘’taxes on knowledge’’ made economic profit a rational aim for press owners to pursue

The expanding circulations following the abolition of the duty reflected the pursuit of readership for economic gain

The previous political struggles associated with of the age of the ‘radical press’’ gave way to economic competition between dailies for readers and for profits

Thus the 1855 abolition created a new dynamic in the press, with economic competition making newspaper production a vibrant activity (in Chalaby, 1998).

Gradual growth of a “mass” circulation press

I.e. The Daily Mail was selling more than 800.000 by the 1900s. During the few decades following the repeal, the Daily Telegraph was

the leading paper in terms of circulation. The Daily Telegraph passed The Times sales to reach 141.700 by 1861

and 242.000 copies by 1877 (Wadsworth, 1955) The next circulation leader was the Daily Mail, which outdid its rivals

from 1896 to 1933 The Daily Mail stabilised itself at 800.000 copies until the outbreak of

the First World War. Competition for readers: At the peak of the war, The Daily Herald

offered the complete work of Dickens.

The new technologies and their impact on the press industry

Printing technology: improves more during the 19th century than during the five preceding centuries

Steam power (The Times, 1814) Web-fed rotary press

The electric telegraph: the “Victorian Internet” London and New York connected in 1866 By the 1880s, British newspapers were printing news

from all over the world that they received from the telegraph wires

News agencies Reuters AP (Associated Press)

Flat bed presses

An early Richard Hoe printing press, 1856

The growth of the media industries during the 19th century: key trends

a) Transformation of media institutions into commercial enterprises

b) Technical innovations – electrical energy was one of the most important discoveries (19th century)

c) The “invention” and transformation of journalism

d) Radio came along in the 1920s; television in the 1940s

Telegraph machine

Telegraph lines, mid-19th century

The new technologies and their impact on the press industry: the case of journalism

Newsgathering methods

News becomes a commodity Supply/demand News agencies The emergence of the newsroom Michael Schudson: “The Age of the Reporter” I.e. Reynold News changed under the impact of the new economic

implications for newspaper publishing, with the paper continuing to take a radical stand on most major events, but expressing also the individualistic values of more affluent readers (in Curran and Seaton, 2012)

The new technologies and their impact on the press industry

The distribution system Railways system Network of newsvendors and agents Emergence of daily national newspapers

Newsgathering methods

Newspapers must deliver news and information to their readers. Their primary function is to gather news and deliver it to their readers on a daily basis.

There was still room for partisanship in British journalism though: The Daily Herald only survived when it was taken over as the

official organ of the Labour Party and the TUC in 1922.

The invention of journalism Chalaby (1998) argues that the press saw a transition to a journalistic

discourse in the 19th century, with this beginning when the taxes on knowledge were imposed on the press, and stamped papers were priced at 7 pence.

The repeal of the taxes between 1855 and 1861 opened the possibility of selling newspapers for one penny and for half a penny, enlarging the market for newspaper readers

With the development of the press industry and journalism came the press baron

Economic struggles defined the limits of the journalistic field: “Between the 1830s and the 1890s, the amount of information

processed, the number of copies to be printed and the number of pages per issue had increased” (1998, 35).

The invention of journalism* These economic struggles also restricted the number of players in the

market, leading to concentration in the marketplace There was no state intervention in this market, until the emergence of

the BBC Three competitive mechanisms introduced by the repeal and the

subsequent creation of the penny market: 1) the sudden growth of the newspapers; 2) the increase in the coverage of circulation of pages 3) the limitations on the newspaper’s ability to generate financial

resources I.e. Within one year of the repeal, Mitchell’s Newspaper Directory

registered an increase of 115 newspapers. However, the one-penny market was limited and the supply started to exceed the demand.

(Chalaby, 1998).

The development of journalism

The Daily Telegraph (founded in June 1855)

The ‘New Journalism’ - The Pall Mall Gazette. Editor: William Stead.

The Sunday popular press

The News of the World, founded in 1843

* The age of the press barons (WK 4)

Conclusions and questionsWhat were the factors that assisted in the development of

the commercial press? Does only fact-based journalism exist today? What role had advertising in the growth of the commercial

press?

Class topics: - Explain why the repeal of the taxes on knowledge in 1855 had

such momentous consequences for the British press. - Analyse the factors that contributed to the industrialization of

the British press in the 19th century. - Analyse the key features of the second information revolution.

Core reading for week 4 – The invention of popular journalism

Essential Curran, J. and J. Seaton (2010) Power Without Responsibility - 7th Edition.

Routledge. Chapters 4 & 5. OR Williams, K. (1998) Get Me a Murder a Day: A History of Mass Communication in

Britain. Arnold. Chapter 3. Recommended: Chalaby, J. (2000) ‘“Smiling Pictures Make People Smile”: Northcliffe’s

journalism’, Media History 6(1): 33-44. Additional Catterall, P., Seymour-Ure, C. and A. Smith, (2000) Northcliffe’s Legacy: Aspects

of the British Popular Press, 1896-1996. Macmillan.