Seminar Paper on Tabloid Nations parts 2 and 3

Tabloid Nation Seminar Paper

Part 2

“Dead.” This was the headline from the January 13^th 1928 edition of The New York Daily News. This one headline referred to the first execution by electric chair of “ The Bloody Blonde”, Ruth Snyder. This headline and the image of the electrocuted, rotting corpse of Snyder increased the circulation of the paper by over 300,000. The headline was the inspiration for Harry Guy Bartholomew to reinvent his struggling Daily Mirror by adopting the “New York-style tabloid”, which he felt was “capable of selling perhaps ten times as many copies.” 

After seizing control of the Mirror from the conservative board of directors in 1934, he envisioned a paper where “Sensationalism” would be the main selling point of the newspaper with shocking headlines and sexual arousing pictures to sell alongside them.  “Bart” hired J Walter Thompson; an American advertising mogul who concluded the re-launch would focus on “human interest” stories and an expanded features section.

With this idea, off his own back he hired Basil D Nicholson as the new features editor of The Mirror. Nicholson was famous for being an advertising genius whose phrases had the ability to change the thought process of a mass society into thinking something. This approach would be adopted in his features writing where he insured that every story had two important elements:

1.     Think of a headline-the newspaper equivalent of an ad slogan.

And

       2. Write some “tosh”, which is another way to explain to “stand it up.”

This has remained the same in Journalism even today where whenever you have an idea for a story or interview you need to ensure you have the pictures and the quotes to stand it up.

These ideas did bring upon by 1936, a page and a half on comic strips, which proved to be an important entity within the paper’s core structure. However, a clash of personalities between Nicholson and Bart and one slip of the tongue to many led to the eventful dismissal of Nicholson and he was to be replaced by Hugh Cudlipp who would turn out to be the major benefactor in all of this hostility.

Cudlipp was part of a family dynasty of Journalists with his three brothers all becoming journalists, including his brother Reg who would become the editor of The News of the World. An early experience of near death and unemployment scared Cudlipp to ensure he was always employed and financially stable.

In 1935 at the age of 22 Hugh Cudlipp took over the reigns as features editor and under Bartholomew’s instruction led the rival of stories derived from human interests and labelled “shock-horror” in their realism, without a moments thought to how the story would be received.

Cudlipp did introduce a column where reader could write in and get their questions answered. He ensured that every letter was personally answered and this was starting to obtain The Mirror a new female audience. This was taking advantage of where the paper would support the rights of females to the point where it strived to improve the working conditions of secretaries, this becoming one of the many examples of “Investigative Journalism.” This would be the vocal drive of the features section, which would appeal to a women’s every need, but would also be used as a ploy for Cudlipp and Bart to continue to “sex” up the paper by any means, including the first example of  “Page Three.”

Cudlipp would go behind Bartholomew’s back in 1938 when he became the editor of The Sunday Pictorial. This decision enraged Bart, but Hugh Cudlipp would take the paper and sensationalise it further than he had at The Mirror and the circulation increased at a much faster rate.

With World War Two looming and the reign of terror of Hitler’s Nazi party growing every stronger, Cudlipp spoke out against Hitler and used his paper to voice his view on how he felt the nation needed to stand up for themselves against this superpower. He praised Hitler for curbing Germany unemployment, but this was used as a tactic to cause Britain to “deeply resent” Hitler. He was able to along with his superior Cecil King convince Winston Churchill to organise a large Army, Air Force and Navy ready to attack Germany head-on.

Hugh Cudlipp was conscripted into the Army at the start of the war, but this lead The Mirror into a period of severe controversy. The paper at the start of the war were the only paper who appeased other views who felt Britain should side with Hitler, but The Mirror would start to voice opinion, which lead to the resignation of Neville Chamberlain and the employment of Churchill as Prime Minister.

However, the stance of The Daily Mirror, which supported the solders on the front line and belittled the officers and the government took a step too far when in March 1942 when a cartoon showing a merchant solider clinging onto driftwood after an Nazi attack on his ship. The British Government and secret service felt this was a Nazi propaganda symbol and felt The Daily Mirror was working for Hitler against the British.

In reality this was not the case as the paper was just trying to show the war from its true reality. The frontline. Cudlipp had his own paper whilst on the frontline called Union Jack, which deployed similar articles and features found in The Mirror. He was commended for this and was awarded an OBE an honorary Lieutenant Colonel.

As the war ended, the key figurehead of the old school, gentleman of the conservative Mirror board of directors John Cowley died and Bart had been appointed Chairman. Cudlipp who was among a string of Mirror columnist who had reported from the frontline and sent their stories back to Britain and published under secret alias were to be commended and promoted in a time Cecil King felt “That is that we are all going places!”

In 1945 after persuasion by Labour party followers, The Mirror released the headline saying simply “VOTE FOR HIM. “This slogan enabled a Labour victory and showed how one newspaper could have so much influence and cause a political outcome, which no one had expected. This change helped Britain create the welfare state, education reform, social security and The NHS, which has helped the country grow and establish more equality and gave more opportunities to working-class people, which before then had been very limited.

Conflict between Cudlipp and Bart erupted, which led to Cudlipp drunken outburst against Bart at the 1948 Mirror Christmas party and this led to Cudlipp instant dismissal. However, The Daily Mirror rival, The Daily Express, which was run by Lord Beaverbrook, employed him almost instantly.

However, inside The Daily Mirror Cecil King was planning a revolt against Henry Guy Bartholomew and in December 1951 conspired and convinced every member of the Mirror board, including close associates of Bart that he should be removed as chairman. This was to be the end of the Harry Guy Bartholomew and Cecil King would now take reign and would bring Hugh Cudlipp back to fold.

Part 3

Cudlipp was brought back and made editor-in-chief of both The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Pictorial. The Mirror continued to diminish The Daily Express in terms of sales, but was facing a losing battle in the advertising, as The Express would aim its advert at the middle class, whilst The Mirror targeted the working class.

The Mirror would have to change it’s aims and news agenda to meet it’s targeted demographic of the “babybloomers” and Cudlipp tried to build The Mirror as a “modern day” Express and felt it was time he allowed the paper to “Spread it’s wings.”

To do this he hired more university graduates and women to try give the paper more greater depth and knowledge within the stories. Cuddlip’s first editor was Jack Nener, a fellow Welshman who was regarded as one of the old guard, but was experienced and regarded as a technical perfectionist.  His views were to keep the old-time war spirit going, but would not shy if he did not approve of something, even if it meant swearing a dozen or so times.

Cudlipp would allow Nener to run the party freely, apart from Political news, which he used as a device to “SHOCK ISSUES”, which would be a political propaganda used to broadcast news, which would shock the readers with stories not conceived as being possible.

The political “SHOCK ISSUE” would not generate as many sales as hoped, but did stur opinion on the newsstands. Cudlipp would take control of the Political affairs in order to show The Mirror’s continued strong support of Labour, even though the Conservatives had regained power in the 1951 General Election.

This did not matter though as the changes had seen an increase in advertising revenue and it seemed that Hugh Cudlipp had the “Midas Touch.”

Alcohol was an integral part of the day-to-day running of a newspaper and this was evident in the office of The Daily Mirror, but Cudlipp cracked down on most forms of liquor, apart from Brandy and Wine.  The drinking would made possible by the money trees, which were the salaries of the Journalists and editors and The Mirror was being seen by some as “more of a private bank, than an employer.”

These expenses were seen to have been fiddled about with in a way to ensure that salaries were kept lower and to avoid having to pay tax. It got to the point where some reporters were putting down prostitutes as executive expenses. However, the increased profitability of the paper ensured that Cudlipp could hire all of the best columnist and reporters Fleet Street had to offer and it become known that these people would become overnight celebrities, as famous as some of the film stars and sportsman of the time.

“Cassandra” was seen as the Mirror greatest weapon as he would use his column and a writing style deployed as “delayed drop” as he would write normally for a first couple of sentences and write a “knockout blow” that would rock the reader’s “glass chin.”

The Daily Mirror were truly going through its golden age, but a major rival was starting to simmer from the horizon and its invention would start the decline of newspapers, it’s name the Television.

In 1956 the newsprint rationing law was announced to end on January 1^st 1959, which meant it would increase competition for advertising revenue for all British newspapers. At the same time the first commercial television station was launched called ITV and meant now television would compete from the newspaper for advertising revenue.

However, this was detour the continuing surge for The Mirror and by 1964 had over 5 million readers and had eclipsed, the now ageing and declining Daily Express were seeing sales fall as did the lives of their readers. From the mid 60’s the paper adopted a more foreign approach to reporting with various reports from all over the world including the Cold War and the every growing knockout list of Muhammad Ali.

Hugh Cudlipp was starting to enjoy the millionaire lifestyle he had earned and was not afraid to show his newfound wealth in front of friends and associates.  With Cudlipp looking after the day-to-day running of the paper, this left Cecil King with the role of building up the media conglomerate and started to buy various media outlets across the entire western world and beyond.

This new media conglomerate, known as the IPC (International Publishing Corporation) was trying to sell of its most invaluable asset, The Daily Herald, which has seen it’s circulation drop to under a million again due to it’s readers dying old age. However, this was seen to be the last fully Labour supported paper and under soon-to-be Prime Minister Harold Wilson he negotiated with King and they decided to relaunch the paper as The Sun. Even though first day sales were at a healthy 3 million, sales continued to decline and The Sun was closed down in 1970 and would have to find a new buyer for a new lease of life.

The on-going argument between Labour and IPC same to a head on May 10^th 1968 when King would produce a front-page article in The Mirror with the headline “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH” This reflected in his view that Harold Wilson should be removed from political office immediately. This was not the beginning as over a span of four years, he had conspired with Cudlipp to create a “coup”, which would see them with the help of Lord Mountbatten would relieve Wilson of his duties as Prime Minister and would create a new British government with help from the IRA. These finding would not come to light until over 20 years after this infamous article, which lead to the sacking of King from The Mirror and the IPC.

This would lead Hugh Cudlipp to take over as Chairman of The Mirror, but would not enter his office for weeks until everything that had come and was inherited in the King regime was removed from existence, never to be seen or mentioned again.

It was around this time that Australian millionaire Rupert Murdoch came into Britain to start his media empire starting with the easy purchase of The News of the World in 1969.  His next step was to purchase The Sun from Cudlipp and the IPC and did so at some ease at a price, which many though was “reasonably cheap.” It was Murdoch’s aim to bring The Mirror down and make The Sun the biggest daily newspaper in the country and to do that he employed a key member of The Mirror group, Larry Lamb.

In order to starting building a law readership it was Lamb’s vision to take advantage of the “Babybloomers” that Cudlipp has ignored in the early 1960’s. Cudlipp was not worried and was mock Murdoch and his newest acquisition Lamb at every turn and thought that is was inevitable that the news version of The Sun would fail the same as its predecessor

Cudlipp decided to relaunch The Mirror as the first “quality tabloid newspaper.” The plan to kill off any kind of Sun revival was to create a new magazine, aimed at the younger audience. The Mirror magazine would be included in every Wednesday’s edition. This failed though and the IPC decided to cancel the magazine at once.

Within eighteen months of The Sun’s launch they had gained 2.5 million readers and The Mirror had lost a million and were struggling to find a solution or a “Plan B’ to the failed Mirror Magazine as sales drop and the advertising revenue dropped at the same time.  The Sun would used enticing words like “WIN, SEX and FREE” to entice their now loyal readers and the overall news broadcast was better than The Mirror and it was seen as a win-win situation for Rupert Murdoch who realised that the amount he paid for the paper in the first place was small compared to the profits he was making.

By 1978 the every-growing battle between the papers, which had resulted in SHOCK TATICS, which defied belief had seen The Sun triumph in becoming the biggest selling daily newspaper in Britain.

Hugh Cudlipp would reign as chairman of The Mirror and IPC in 1974 and it was seen as the end of an era for a man seen as the greatest tabloid journalist of the 20^th century. The Mirror would never recover and until this very day is still seen as the number two daily tabloid newspaper in Great Britain and still even throughout all of the controversy of press scandals and the on-going Leviasan Enquiry, which had seen The News of The World closed down, The Sun still remains as the biggest selling daily tabloid in the United Kingdom. 

HCJ Semester Two, Lecture One: Television/Consumer Society and Why Southampton is not "A hole" or maybe it is...

It has been a while and since I have lost all the excess baggage after Christmas and New Year, we are back and ready for the final semester of HCJ. This semester we revolve around everything from 1950 to the present day and this week's subject focused upon the history of the media itself, including the political and social impact of the media.

Before we do that though let have a brief overview and the elements of the media that have been covered in HCJ so far:

1. History of the printing press, which started with the flat bet Gutenberg press of the reformation era during The Enlightenment, according to Einstein reductively. This started with the first recorded knowledge of speech over 30,000 years ago and the first known written scriptures was by the Sumerians (now known as Iraq) 7000 years ago.

2. The storm driven rotary press of the 19th Century. This referred to "The necessary conditions of press, industry, demographics, technology and law. These conditions was suited in England and other  European "nation states" after 1848 including the strong press if France and Germany.

3. American and "The Wild West", which included The Gold Rush and the rise and fall of the American press mogul WR Hearst and the portray of his life in Orsen Welles acclaimed performance in Citizen Kane.

4. The Telegraph and the rival of Hearst's media empire in the New York circulation wars E.G. "The Yellow Press" Hearst vs Pulitzer.

5. This was reflected in England and the rising power of newspapers masterminds Northcliffe and Rothermere (First part of Chris Horrie's Tabloid Nation)

6. Photograph and the genius of both Harry Guy Bartholomew and Hannah Swaffer E.G. The creation of the Bart-line, which enabled the ability for photographs to be wired from America to Britain and the first portal of real photographs in British newspapers, which increased the popularity of The Daily Mirror

These are all the key elements of the media that we have learnt and now we had to explore everything from the 1920's and the invention of radio and the arrival and emergence of cinema.

This will refer me to the "necessary conditions" model, which consists of the three main elements that form and control the media up to the presents day:

1. Technology (affordable use allowed radios sets and transmissions).
2. Demographics (distribution costs were reduced across the western world and this allowed the American press to boost their profits and audience).
3. Law and Regulation (licensing system and the nationalisation of the radio by the British Government in 1922, nearly as soon as it was created. This meant the BBC were the only transmitted legal radio output throughout the United Kingdom and it was a state monopoly and resorted in pirate radio stations being transmitted from boats across the English Channel E.G Radio Caroline)

This will now allow me to take a break from our normal scheduled blogging to transmit a message from our pirate radio sponsors and present the trailer from The Boat That Rock (or also to be known as the British film that flopped in 2009)



Ok now even you have fallen asleep after watching that I am sorry, but it had to be done. back to our normal scheduled blogging.

In the media these three key elements are seen as the venn diagram of three factors. With radio in the UK, the BBC were now seen as "The Times" of the airwaves and would broadcast hour after hour of countless, monogamous classic music, which would be interrupted by two hours of prime time details of the ongoings debate in parliament. Now I am glad I was born in 1990, not 1950.

Newspapers in the 1930's were at their biggest circulation across the country with the Daily Herald, run by the TUC and the Labour Party and their main competition, which was seen as the conservative supported, Beaverbrook run Daily Express.

Within The Sunday newspapers, the now defunct (still is taking me a while to get used to saying this) New of the World and The Sunday Pictorial (now known today as The Sunday Mirror) were the most popular. The Daily Mirror itself, which was now conceived as "The American picture paper",  however the newspaper was unpopular in the 30's as it was seen as the sister paper of The Daily Mail and were both influenced by Rothermere ("Hurrah of the Blackshirts). Picture papers at the time were seen as the most realistic visual depiction of human life until the invention of the television.

The first experiments of television in the UK were pre World War 2, but it was seen that TV essentially happened" historically in the 1950's. In the 50's Keynesian demands management and the consumer society reigned supreme. Huge levels of debt were seen from the WW2 debt, but also through Keynesian"stimulus" and "infrastructure" investment and was seen as it was better to employ someone to dig a whole and then fill it back up again. In 1940's Southampton was an example of that hole, but in the 50/60's full employment ensure that the city was rebuilt.

Now I am sorry, but I feel that being a resident of Southampton that I am quite proud of my city being one of the best places to live on the south coast and even though some parts of the city look more like ghettos within North London, but I feel that overall the city is a great place to live and with a very good football club. Not to be mean to Chris Horrie, but when was the last time I saw Manchester was not the most loveliest of places and Richmond did not have a football team to talk about. Ok, rant over, I will agree to disagree that all cities have their fair share of bad areas.

Now this lead to vast government spending on many key areas including:

1. The military including the arms race and the MIC.
2. The Welfare State: NHS, free universal education including "red brick" universities. This lead to the eventual inclusion of robins, polytechnics and then "new universities" e.g. Warwick.
3. Council Housing, which could be seen as a tale of two stories. On one hand you have the nice terrace housing that at the time you would pay £100 a month to rent from the local council and nowadays some of these houses are worth nearly £500,000. On the other hands you councils houses were seen as luxury high-rise tower blocks, but can not be know as pop out a child and live on the 18th floor skyscrapers of doom. This is where you can describe Southampton as "a hole" with this being the prime example of high-rise gone common:

4. Social security, which ensured full employment and the liberation of women.

Now after this week's changes to welfare and benefits proposed by Working and Pensions minister, Ian Duncan Smith I will not dwell on the phrase that the unemployed and incapacitated in Britain have "Never had it so good, I mean Bad."

This bring me onto the subject that will be the focus point of my seminar paper on parts 2 and 3 of Tabloid Nation; Hugh Cudlipp. The Daily Mirror under Cudlipp was seen as The Beatles as it appealed to young, working class males and campaigning Journalists of the left, all fuelled by the growth of advertising. This was caused by the Keynesian wave of deficit and the baby boom brought upon by the life cycle of the "Babybloomers."

The Mirror was all conquering as it had a 12 million circulation and 8 million sales. The complacency
scene at the mirror was it ignored television and "the summer of love" in 1968 and not attracting the boomers during their teenage year. If they had they may have been able to secure a readership, which is now a slowly, diminishing trend. These women who gave birth aged 20 in 1948 were 40 in 1968, meaning their offspring would of been in their teens and in the peak of their rebellion.

What was so attractive for television during this time was the commercial nature of ITC and the imported American programming. This would still be felt today with everyone favourite baby bloomer:



Everyone's favourite sliver fox there in Ken Barlow. Now with commercial TV emphasis on key demographics and with disposable income invested in what teenagers craved at time time; women and soap operas, which is proven today with the nation's continued infatuation with Coronation Street.

A lot of the records and films produced in the 1960's were seen as "cultural", but television was seen as a different animal to print (more majestic and elegant like a gazelle). The journey of The Enlightenment was ended by television, caused by the social and political reference of television "dumbing down" and was linked with advertising and commercialisation.

This is where The Sun profited as it was born in the age of which we live in and accepted the social demographic aspirations of society at the time. But it was seen as a market failure until it's eventual rebrith by Rupert Murdoch who crucially understood the significance of TV and exploited gaps in the market created by the revolutionary framework. This reflected in the 1990's and up to the present day with slow death of newspaper in Great Britain.

That is all for now tune in next week with my seminar paper of Part's 2 and 3 of Chris Horrie's Tabloid Nation until next time I recommend you visit the picturesque southern city of Southampton when you next get the chance!