The Pioneer London Halfpenny Paper.

Manawatu Herald, 6 March 1897, Page 3

The Pioneer London Halfpenny Paper.

» A lengthy account of the London Halfpenny Press appears in the January • Windsor Magazine.' "To the Echo belongs the honour of being the pioneer London halfpenny paper. It was started hy Cassell and Co. in 1868, and was edited in its early stages by Sir Arthur Arnold, the present chairman of the London County Council. It was originally eightpaged, very similar in literary matter to the Globe oi today; and among its first leader-writers was Miss Harriet Martineau. When under the Cassels it did well, but after a time it was taken over by Baron Grant. Money was squandered with a free hand, until the financier got tired of his toy. Nothing can absorb so much money and show so little for it as a newspaper, aa the Baron found to his cost. He looked about for a purchaser, and in 1876 Mr Paesmore Edwards secured the property for a few thousand pounds. Under him the office was revolutionised, and the paper so increased in value that early in the eighties he sold a two-thirds lhare to the Storey-Carnegie syndicate for £50,000. This syndicate had been formed to control English opinion by having dailies all over the oountry which should speak with united voice on publio affairs. But the scheme fall through. Mr Edwards and his partners did not get on well together, and in a short time he was glad to buy back the synrli cate's rights at the rate of £100,000 for the whole paper." __■_—______■ __ _ <