FORTY JOURNALS BOUGHT.
ONE MAN TO CONTROL,, I Fleet Street shows feverish interest in the gigantic newspaper deal, invpling Lord Rothermere's purchase for £5,000,000 of the complete newspaper interests of Sir/fid'iy^rd..Hvilto : p..:1n*?.11 these comprise .40;, newspapers. ' .' Lord Beaverbrook,' owner of ' 'The Sunday Express" and "The Daily Express," is joining "Lard", Rothermere, who will thus control a minimum of six large London dailies,, irrespective of other interests., daily .papers are: "The Daily Mail," "The Daily Express," "The Daily, Sketch," The Daily Mirror," "The. Evening News," and "The Evening Standard.". -;.. It is impossible to value the Hulton papers. For example, "The Daily Sketch" is capitalised, according" to Somerset House, at £2OO. Yet it lias a tremendous circulation. Other papers controlled by the Hulton interests are "The Evening Standard," "The Sunday Herald," "The Empire News," "The Daily Despatch" (Manchester), "The Evening Chroni4ManchMer>:: ''Tie Snorting Chronicle" (Manchester) and various periodicals. Sir William Berry, chief owner of "The Daily Graphic" and "The Sunday Times," was negotiating with Sir Edward Hulton to purchase his interests, but was outbidden by Lord Rothermere.
This reported £5,000,000 deal, is the culimination of a behind-the-scenes battle for supremacy that "has been going on for many months among newspaper millionaires. The prize was power—the control of the British popular Press. Besides Lord Rothermere —who succeeded his brother, the late. Lord Northcliffe, in the control of "The Daily Mail" and allied organs, others concerned in the struggle wore:—
Lord Beaverbrook, of the "Daily Express," of whom the late; Lord Northcliffe wrote:—"His career is a credit to Canada. It is a happy accident of fortune that Lord Beaverbrook should have come to England. I- look forward to the day when the young Australians and New Zeala'nders, who are, I am sorry to say, also going to the United States, will come here, to the Motherland, where there is plenty of opportunity for their activity. Would that mare came to our great schools and Universities!" Lord Beaverbrook made his money in other enterprises, but he entered the newspaper world while quite a young man. He does not merely finance his papers. He runs them and devotes most of his time to them.
Sir William Berry, whom Lord Northcliffe described as a "millionaire amateur" and "a great big Berry." He owns "The Daily Graphic" and ''The Sunday Times." He came from South Wales some years ago to Fleet. Street, and his succesful invasion of the "street of ink" has been one of the outstanding developments of recent years. Sir Edward Hulton, owner of "Daily Sketch," "Evening Standard/'Sunday Herald," and, many other publications in Manchester and London. The son of a. Manchester printer, he has amassed great-wealth, but his health has not been of the best in recent years.
There were other millionaires in the background, but these were the chief players in the game. The gossip of Fleet Street was that Lord Beaverbrook was hoping to "swallow" Sir E. Hulton, and that Sir Wm. Berry was hoping to do the same. Now Lord Rothermere has come along, and, by his dramatic stroke, taken the lead.
Lord Rothermere is reported to be worth £14,000,000. He is a genius of finance and ambitious for power. There will be excited speculation, not only among journalists, but also among the public, as to the hidden weaving of this succesful bid for power and its consequences.
Lord Rothermere, as Mr. A. E. Gardiner wrote the other day (before this new acquistian of newspaper power), is "armed with a weapon that makes him the most powerful individual in the State." He added: "Lord Rothermere aims at ruling England as his brother ruled it. No Government is to be allowed to live that does hot take its marching orders from r him."
Lord Rothermere's amazing newspaper deal-—surely the vastest thing of its kind in history—opens a new chapter in which the public, not only o.f Great Britain, but also of the whole Empire, is vitally concerned. Never before has so many popular organs of public opinion been under the control of a single individual. Many millions of readers, north, south, east and west, will read the 40 newspapers which will apparently be Lord Rothermere's mouthpiece. For instance, among daily papers, "The Daily Mail has a sale of about 1,800, 000 copies daily; ''The Daily Mirror" (over 1,000,000); "The Evening News" (800,000); and other approximate sales are probably as follows: —"Daily Express" (850,000); "Daily Sketch" (about 900,pffd). And these, although the chief ones, are only a few.
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Shannon News, 12 February 1924, Page 4
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744FORTY JOURNALS BOUGHT. Shannon News, 12 February 1924, Page 4
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