The second part of the book Tabloid Nation focuses on how the Daily Mirror became increasingly influential especially during the two World Wars. The newspaper became an important tool for families during the First World War as it printed information about the battles which enabled them to find out if their loved ones were still alive. Reporters were sent over to the battle ground to take pictures which would be published. These exclusive images of trench warfare were printed on a daily basis and 1,700,000 copies of the newspaper were being sold each day. As a result of the newspapers decision to focus on the events of the War it became a trusted newspaper as families relied on the paper to inform them of any news whether it was good or bad. However, things were about to take a downturn as the TUC publishing company decided to invest nearly £8,000,000 in the Mirror’s rival newspaper, the Daily Herald in order to outsell the Daily Mirror. The Daily Mirror needed to take drastic action in order to save the Mirror from collapse and in 1934 Harry Guy Bartholomew who was the editor in chief of the Daily Mirror decided to join forces with Cecil Harmsworth King. The duo changed the newspaper’s style from a typical British newspaper to a New York style tabloid newspaper filled with cartoon strips and full page images in a bid to increase sales. The aim was to attract a wide target audience ranging from businessmen to domestic housewives. In 1938, an Agony Aunt was employed by the newspaper and women were able to send in letters explaining domestic issues and they would receive help and advice. Women were now given a voice which could be heard and they no longer had to keep their problems to themselves as there was someone to comfort them. These steps by Bartholomew and King was a success as the newspaper attracted sales of 2,400,000 copies per day and the General Election of 1945 secured the newspaper’s future. The Daily Mirror printed large poster campaigns to promote the Labour candidate Clement Attlee persuading readers that Labour was going to benefit the working classes. The working classes in Britain at this time made up the highest percentage of people therefore it had the most power and influence. Sales of the newspaper increased dramatically and Attlee won the election by a record majority.
The power and influence of Bartholomew and King can be compared to that of William Randolph Hearst who started a newspaper empire in the United States of America in the 1890’s. He borrowed money from his mother to buy the rights to the New York Morning Journal in 1895 which was on the verge of collapse and entered a head to head battle which rival newspaper owner, Joseph Pulitzer. Hearst used “yellow journalism” techniques such as eye catching headlines and stories based on sensation and crime and this was a major success as sales of the newspaper soared. Over the new few years, Hearst invested in more newspaper companies and by the mid 1920’s owned 28 newspapers across America. He dominated the newspaper market during this time and his influence within the media industry was unchallenged. His success is so great that a film was produced in 1941 by Orson Wells named Citizen Kane which documented his road to greatness.
Switching back to Tabloid Nation, part 3 explains the developments of the newspaper throughout the 1950’s and 60’s. In 1952, Hugh Cudlipp was employed by the Daily Mirror to once again remodel the style of the newspaper. The working class structure was changing and the Labour Government introduced the “welfare state” where there was full employment and the NHS was introduced to provide free healthcare. The younger generation who were born post World War Two known as the “baby boomers” were having a big influence on society and did not want to read the Mirror with its 1930’s content. Therefore, Cudlipp and King embarked on a project which would make the newspaper appeal to young people. Editors were employed from all walks of life including university graduates and women to report about so called “modern” topics such as celebrities and media such as the radio and later on television. From 1960, “shock issues” of the Mirror were produced in order to gain readership and to grab young people’s attention and this marked the start of the Daily Mirror’s reputation for reporting on serious issues but with an entertaining twist. Sales of the newspaper continued to climb and beat all of its rivals.
However, the Mirror was about to suffer yet another setback due to the launch of commercial television especially ITV in 1956. The broadcasting company directly competed with the Daily Mirror for advertising revenue and aimed to be the “Daily Mirror of the airwaves” trying to persuade young people to watch television rather than sit down and read a newspaper. The newspaper went through a makeover and advertised itself as the paper of “youth” by the 1960’s reporting on pop artists such as Elvis Presley and Bill Haley and the Comets. By 1964, the Daily Mirror became the biggest selling newspaper in the world with 5 million copies sold each day. One further development of the Daily Mirror which would prove to be a landmark in the newspaper industry was the introduction of Mirrorscope which was a pull out magazine which was written by young journalists. It contained crime reports, sex advice, cartoon strips and sports results and can be regarded as the predecessor of The Sun Newspaper. The glory days of the Mirror were about to take a turn for the worse in 1968 when King published his own front page spread titled “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH” regarding Harold Wilson’s departure from office as Prime Minister. He was later sacked from his position as chairman by Cudlipp and this marked the end of the Harmsworth Empire.
Overseas in Australia there was a new newspaper tycoon ready to exert his influence in the British newspaper industry. Rupert Murdoch bought the News of the World in 1968 and when Cudlipp put the Sun up for sale in 1969, Murdoch seized the opportunity for newspaper domination by buying the newspaper and merging it with the Mirror. He used the modern 1960’s style that the Mirror had used and copied it in the Sun and employed Larry Lamb to be the editor. However, the launch of the new style Sun was not totally successful but within 18 months readers had warmed to the spelling mistakes and poor quality pictures and the newspaper was selling 2,500,000 copies a day. The Mirror was struggling to sell 1,000,000 copies per day and the Sun took the crown as the bestselling newspaper in the world by 1978. Murdoch’s success has continued to the present day and he is the owner of Twentieth Century Fox television and News Corporation. He is regarded as the richest and most powerful media tycoon and he owns the rights to a large number of TV shows including The Simpsons and American Idol.
In conclusion, the Daily Mirror enjoyed a continuing run of success throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s and its attempts to attract younger target audiences by introducing reports based around celebrities and sport. Young people were more interested in whether their favourite football team had won than who will win the next general election. However, its good fortunes were turned around when Rupert Murdoch purchased both the News of the World and Sun newspapers and copied the Mirror’s style with more emphasis on pop music and celebrities which are extremely important in a youngster’s everyday life. Murdoch had seized his opportunity to dominate British Journalism as a result the Daily Mirror was slowly collapsing under the pressure.
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