Tabloid Nation

Tabloid Nation by Chris Horrie

For the first seminar of the semester, the reading was Tabloid Nation by Chris Horrie (our lecturer). The first two chapters of this book focus on the development of thee tabloid newspapers in the 20^th Century. With the rise of the big name newspapers like the Daily Mail and The Sun, smaller newspapers such as the Daily Mirror were always going to suffer. The two chapters from Tabloid Nation follow the particular history of The Daily Mirror.  

Alfred Harmsworth, the founder and owner of the Daily Mail newspaper. He was the richest and the most powerful man in British Journalism of the time. It’s no wonder that he soon became Lord Northcliffe. Harmsworth introduced a women’s section which became so popular amongst the readers.  Because of this great success it was decided that a newspaper designed especially for women, this is how the Daily Mirror was created. At the beginning of its creation, the Daily Mirror sold very few copies, only 25,000 (that may seem quite a large number but not measuring up to the bigger newspapers it was up against).

 These figures could be due to the women that it was aimed at being too busy with their family-orientated lifestyles. In order to save this failing Newspaper Northcliffe hired the first lady editor and chief, Mary Howarth.  Under the reign of Howarth the Mirror sold nearly 290,000 copies a day. Her new style of printing full page spreads with pictures and very little text appealed not only to the original intended audience of women, but also to the male population. One particular issue, that featured a picture of King Edward VII resting in peace on the front page, sold 2,012,000 copies, a world record I must add. This single copy alone told the newspaper that their target audience had risen therefore indicating that as long as the paper continued the printing of big, shocking events on the front page, they’d continue to sell.

Despite the success of this newspaper, Northcliffe sold the newspaper to his younger brother. Under his reign the paper did not do too well at all until Harry Guy Bartholomew became editorial director. Whilst in power at the Daily Mirror, Bartholomew drew influence from the American Daily News and brought more scandal, more sex and more violence to the Mirror.  Basil D Nicholson, the features editor at the Mirror, brought the cartoon strip to the paper. This was such a popular feature it soon became a prominent piece in most British newspapers. Along with the brilliant idea to have cartoons in the newspaper, he was also the ‘great’ mind that came up with the idea that ‘if there is no news, make some’.   

The outbreak of war slowly affected the newspapers success. Hugh Cudlipp, a member of the Daily Mirror team was recruited to the army, leaving the Mirror team down a particularly important member. To ensure the paper never failed to sell, Bartholomew made the Mirror ‘the soldier’s paper’ featuring stories about the soldiers and photos from the front line. Of course, each and EVERY story took sides with the soldiers. The newspaper continued to grow in success, however, despite his success Bartholomew was voted out of the newspaper, leaving us with the Daily Mirror we see today.