quickly afterwards; and other early papers worth mentioning were
the Salisbury Journal (1729); Manchester Gazette (1730–1760);
Manchester Mercury (1762–1830); the earliest Birmingham
paper, Aris’s Gazette (1741); the Cambridge Chronicle (1744);
and the Oxford Journal (1753). Liverpool also boasted of the
Liverpool Advertiser (1756) and Gore’s General Advertiser (1765–1870).
Of the above the Leeds Mercury (1717) became an increasingly
important provincial organ. It was originally published
weekly, and its price was three-halfpence. In 1729 it was reduced
to four pages of larger size, and sold, with a stamp, at twopence.
From 1755 to 1766 its publication was suspended, but was resumed
in January 1767, under the management of James Bowley, who
continued to conduct it for twenty-seven years, and raised it to a
circulation of 3000. Its price at this time was fourpence. The
increase of the stamp duty in 1797 altered its price to sixpence,
and the circulation sank from 3000 to 800. It was purchased in
1801 by Edward Baines, who first began the insertion of “leaders,”
and whose family left an impress not only on journalism but on
literature in the North of England. It took him three years to
obtain a circulation of 1500; but the Mercury afterwards made
rapid progress. When the Stamp Tax was removed, its price was
reduced to a penny, and in 1901 to a halfpenny. For many years it
admitted neither racing nor theatrical new to its columns, and it
had a powerful moral and political influence in Lancashire and
Yorkshire.
The abolition of the duty on advertisements in 1853, of the stamp duty in 1855, and of the paper duty in 1861, opened the way for a cheap press, and within ten years of the abolition of the paper duty penny morning newspapers had taken up commanding positions in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen; in Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Newcastle and Sheffield; in Birmingham and Nottingham; in Bristol, Cardiff and Plymouth; and across St George’s Channel in Dublin, Cork, Belfast and Waterford. As time went on, and increasingly after the ’seventies, provincial evening papers began to multiply. But any real importance as organs of opinion was still confined to only a few of the great penny provincial dailies, notably the Yorkshire Post, Manchester Guardian, Birmingham Post (1857), Sheffield Telegraph (associated with Sir W. Leng), Liverpool Daily Post, Leeds Mercury and Western Morning News; others too numerous to mention here were at the same time cradling journalists who were to become famous in a larger sphere, such as the Darlington Northern Echo, on which Mr W. T. Stead made his début, while Mr Joseph Cowen for some years made the Newcastle Daily Chronicle a powerful force.
The provincial journals began as strictly local organs. But even in 1870 it was beginning to be universally perceived that, though the influence of a newspaper depends upon the sagacity, sound judgment and courage of the editor, its success as a business enterprise rests mainly with the business manager. Managers demanded less localism, a wider range of news, prompter and fuller reports of all important events, longer parliamentary reports, parliamentary sketches, verbatim reports of speeches by statesmen of the first rank. In the early ’seventies such a thing as a full telegraphic report in a provincial morning newspaper of parliamentary proceedings, or of a speech by a leading statesman, was almost unheard of. The Press Association had been in existence a short time, but had not then covered the country with its organization. Reuter’s foreign news service very briefly reported important events. Leading articles were written during the day. Between 1870 and 1880 a complete revolution was effected, as the result of the social and educational changes. Leader-writers began to discuss the latest topics. Newspapers that had been content to fill their columns with local news and clippings from London and distant provincial papers put such matter aside. Telegraphic news crushed it out. In February 1870 the government took over the telegraph system. The advantage of the change was immediately felt by newspapers and their readers. Leading English and Irish newspapers, following Scotland’s lead, began to open offices in London, where Fleet Street soon began to be an open directory to the provincial press—English, Scottish and Irish. The Scottish and the leading Irish newspapers of necessity, the wealthiest and most enterprising English papers for convenience and advantage, engaged special wires. Others that were near enough to London to do so secured London news and advertisements by railway, and completed their news supply by a liberal use of the telegraph. Commercial news, both home and foreign, especially American, was expanded. The Press Association spread its news-collecting organization over the whole country, and was stimulated to activity by the rising opposition of the Central News. All this energy had its counterpart in the business side of the press. Rapid “perfecting” printing machines were introduced, and newspaper managers found themselves in possession of newspapers full of the latest news, and procurable in practically unlimited quantities. By the use of special trains and other organizations, circulation increased apace. The development of news agencies, and their universal employment, tended to produce sameness in the provincial press. From this fate the more enterprising journals saved themselves by special London letters, parliamentary sketches and other special contributions. In 1881 the reporters gallery in the House of Commons was opened to some provincial newspapers, and these accordingly enjoyed new facilities for special effort and distinction. A more important matter, however, was the bombardment of Alexandria and the subsequent Egyptian War. The leading provincial newspapers had already emancipated themselves from localism, and in general news and criticism had risen almost, if not quite, to the average level of the first-class London journals. Now they were to step abroad into the field of war. Singly or in syndicates, or by arrangement with London journals, the leading provincial newspapers sent out war correspondents, and were able to record the history of events as promptly and fully as the metropolitan press. The first syndicate to send out war correspondents was formed by the Glasgow News, the Liverpool Daily Post, Manchester Courier, Birmingham Gazette and Western Morning News, who despatched two correspondents to Egypt, and the new departure was attended with complete success. The Central News also sent out war correspondents to Egypt and the Sudan. During the South African War (1899–1902) the Press Association, in conjunction with Reuter’s Agency, employed correspondents, as well as the Central News. The leading provincial newspapers, however, all formed syndicates amongst themselves to secure war telegrams, and in many cases made arrangements for the simultaneous publication of the letters and telegrams of leading London journals. This system of securing simultaneous publication, in provincial newspapers, of special contributions to London morning newspapers was afterwards still further extended, and articles of exceptional interest that have been specially prepared for London journals may now be found on the same day in some of the leading provincial newspapers.
By the beginning of 1880 the country had fallen upon a period of low prices, and extra expenditure upon war telegrams and on an improved supply of general news was to a considerable extent balanced by the reduced cost of paper. A list compiled at the commencement of 1902 gave the names of eighty-seven halfpenny daily newspapers published in English provincial towns, a considerable number of these being morning journals. Of these, sixty-two had been issued since 1870, those bearing earlier dates of origin being in most cases sheets which formerly were issued at a penny or more, but had subsequently reduced their prices. Of the sixty-two that were issued since 1870, twenty-seven appeared between 1871 and 1882, nineteen between 1882 and 1892 and sixteen between 1892 and 1902. Under the stimulus of cheapness the news-sheet was enlarged. More advertisements, more news, more varied contributions, filled up the additional space. The cost of composition increased, and, though circulation and revenue increased also, there was some danger to the margin of profit. Again invention came to the rescue. In the ’eighties some of the leading provincial newspapers began to use type-setting machines. In this forward step the provinces were far ahead of the London papers, excepting The Times. The Southport Daily News—since dead—led the way by introducing six Hattersley machines, and soon afterwards type-setting machinery became the rule in the provincial press. In the development of provincial papers, one factor of special importance must be noted, the desire for news about all branches of sport. In 1870 sporting meant horse-racing and little more. By degrees it embraced athleticism in all its branches, and progressive newspapers were looked to for information on football, hockey, golf, cricket, lawn-tennis, yachting, boating, cycling, wrestling, coursing, hunting, polo, running, bowls, billiards, chess, &c., quite as much as for notices of musical and dramatic performances, and of other forms of recreation and amusement. The ordinary provincial press, and its halfpenny evening representatives, largely depend on the attraction of the sporting news; and a number of special local papers have also been started to cater for this public.
Scotland.—The first newspaper purporting by its title to be Scottish (the Scotch Intelligencer,[1] 7th September 1643) and the first newspapers actually printed in Scotland (Mercurius Criticus and Mercurius Politicus, published at Leith in 1651 and 1653) were of English manufacture—the first being intended to communicate more particularly the affairs of Scotland to the Londoners, the others to keep Cromwell’s army well acquainted with the London news. The reprinting of the Politicus was transferred to Edinburgh in November 1654, and it continued to appear (under the altered title Mercurius Publicus subsequently to April 1660) until the beginning of 1663. Meanwhile an attempt by Thomas Sydserfe to establish a really Scottish newspaper, Mercurius Caledonius, had failed after the appearance of ten numbers, the first of which had been published at Edinburgh on the 8th of January 1660. It was not until March 1699 that a Scottish newspaper was firmly established, under the title of the Edinburgh Gazette, by James Watson, a printer of eminent skill in his
art.[2] Before the close of the- ↑ This was followed by the Scotch Dove, the first number of which is dated “September 30 to October 20, 1643,” and by the Scottish Mercury (No. 1, October 5, 1643). In 1648 a Mercurius Scoticus and a Mercurius Caledonius were published in London. The Scotch Dove was the only one of these which attained a lengthened existence.
- ↑ Watson was the printer and editor, but the person licensed was James Donaldson, merchant in Edinburgh (“Act in favors of James Donaldson for printing the Gazette,” March 10, 1699, published in Miscellany of the Maitland Club, ii. 232 sq.). Arnot, in his History of Edinburgh, mentions as the second of Edinburgh newspapers—intervening between Mercurius Caledonius and the Gazette—a Kingdom’s Intelligencer. But this was a London newspaper, dating from 1662, which may occasionally have been reprinted in Scotland; no such copies, however, are now known to exist. In like manner the Scottish Mercury, No. 1, May 8, 1692, appears to have been a London newspaper based upon Scottish news-letters, although in an article written in 1848, in the Scottish Journal of Topography, vol. ii. p. 303, it is mentioned as an Edinburgh newspaper.
