The first and second parts of Tabloid Nation by Chris Horrie focus on the development of tabloid newspapers in the 20th century and how the journalism industry was very volatile. With the continuing success of newspapers such as the Daily Mail, other newspapers such as the Daily Mirror suffered setbacks which would make the road to success more troublesome. The following seminar paper based on Tabloid Nation will focus on one particular newspaper, the Daily Mirror and how events both within the newspaper itself and global events would determine its success as a popular national newspaper.
In 1896, Lord Northcliff began creating a newspaper publishing empire which included the national newspaper the Daily Mail. The Daily Mail featured a women’s section with articles based on fashion, decorating and cookery. These articles were so popular amongst women that it was decided that a daily newspaper should be published that was aimed at a female audience. In 1903, a new newspaper was introduced named the Daily Mirror and this was targeted at a female audience. Sales of the newspaper were low with only 25,000 copies being sold each day. One reason for the low sales figures may have been that women were perceived to be too busy in their everyday lives to read newspapers. After the initial failure, it was decided that action should be taken to modify the newspaper in order to attract more potential readers. The newspaper began to print full page spreads with very little text and printed images of important figures such as King Edward VII in an attempt to increase sales figures by attracting both a male and female audience. By 1907, 290,000 copies of the Daily Mirror were sold each day but one photograph was about to change its success. In 1910, following the death of King Edward VII, the newspaper printed a front page photograph of King Edward VII resting in peace and overnight sales of the newspaper soared to a world record of 2,013,000 copies. This increase in sales meant that the newspaper had increased its target audience, therefore as long as it continued to contain shocking images the public would still want to buy the newspaper each day to find out what the latest headline photographs were.
In 1910, Lord Northcliff sold his shares in the Daily Mirror to his brother, Harold in order to focus on the Daily Mail. Harold employed Harry Guy Bartholomew to take on the role of photography editor and the outbreak of war in 1914 gave Bartholomew the opportunity to secure the newspaper’s future. As events of World War One unfolded he seized the chance to publish exclusive images of trench warfare and as a direct result, sales of the newspaper increased to 1.700,000 making it the highest selling daily newspaper of the time. The effect of the war was crucial to the newspaper’s popularity as people across Britain purchased the newspaper in order to receive the latest information about their loved ones. As the war progressed the Daily Mirror became known as the newspaper which represented the soldiers fighting in the war. This offered a level of comfort to both the soldiers and their relatives on the Home Front as they felt that the newspaper was taking care of them by spending time gathering vital information. Newspaper companies today also use a similar method to those during World War One as they employ news correspondents to travel to war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan to gather information for news reports about events such as suicide bombing and the violence of the Taliban. However, this is slightly different to the reporting during World War One as censoring guidelines have been introduced in the modern day which prevents newspapers from printing shocking photographs which show death or horrific injuries.
As the Daily Mirror became the most popular newspaper in Britain, events within rival newspaper companies would put the Mirror under threat. The TUC publishing company purchased the Daily Herald and invested nearly £8,000,000 in order to outsell the Daily Mirror. In 1934, Bartholomew, who was now the editor in chief of the newspaper decided to take drastic action to save the paper and collaborated with Cecil Harmsworth King. The pair aimed to convert the paper from being a typically British daily newspaper to a modern New York style tabloid newspaper focusing on cartoon strips and letter pages for women. In 1938, an agony aunt was introduced into the newspaper to offer advice to women who were struggling with aspects of their lives. During the next few years the newspaper became one of the biggest selling newspapers in the world with 2,400,000 copies being sold each day. This was partly due to the fact that women were finally able to voice their opinions to a newspaper giving them a level of freedom; therefore it had mass appeal to working class women as well as men. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, the newspaper used similar methods to those used during the First World War, printing articles written by journalists on the front lines which focused on conditions of the trenches and the progress made by the soldiers towards defeating Germany. The war played a major part in people’s daily lives, due to the fact that there was a great deal of worry about the safety of the soldiers and the fact that the Daily Mirror printed the largest number of front line reports of any national newspaper at the time meant that British people felt a certain degree of comfort and viewed the newspaper as a blessing.
After the war ended in 1945, the Daily Mirror continued to be a successful tabloid newspaper and was particularly influential during the General Election of 1945 where the Labour was voted into power by a record majority. The newspaper printed large campaign articles and posters persuading the public to vote for the Labour Party as it would benefit the working classes of Britain. This was vitally important as the newspaper was aimed at the working classes which made up the high percentage of people in Britain. Therefore, it could gain access to the largest group of people meaning that with the correct style of articles, the Daily Mirror could help determine the politics of Britain gaining even more power. This run of success has continued from the General Election through to the present day where it still attracts millions of readers each day.
From reading Tabloid Nation, it is clear that the Daily Mirror suffered periods of mass popularity and also times where its survival and future as a newspaper was uncertain. One of the reasons why it suffered a period of decline was the fact that rival newspapers like the Daily Herald were gaining increasing power and money was invested in them to attempt to outsell the Daily Mirror, meaning sales figures of the Daily Mirror declined. Action was taken in order to improve the newspaper and these changes had a huge impact on its popularity. The newspaper overcame its periods of unrest and established itself as a popular national daily newspaper with a wide target audience. Over the course of the last 60 years it has emerged as one of the most popular daily newspapers and has continued to be successful to the present day. In 2009, it was reported that the Daily Mirror sells 2,000,000 copies per day and due to its success it can be regarded in the journalism industry to be one of the most influential newspapers of the 20th century.
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