Lord Northcliffe, or Alfred Harmsworth as he then was, was the pioneer of the half-penny daily newspaper towards the end of the century. He wrote an article for the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, in which after sketching the development of the British press he pointed out that "the development—and indeed the possibility—of the cheap daily paper was due to a number of causes operating together during the latter half of the 19th century. Among these, the first place must undoubtedly be given to the cheapening of paper, through the introduction of wood pulp and the perfecting of the machinery used in the manu facture. From 1875 to 1885 paper cheapened rapidly. and it has been estimated that the introduction of wood pulp trebled the circulation of newspapers in England. Keen competition in the paper trade also did much to lower prices. At the same time the prime cost of newspaper production was increased by the introduction of improved machinery into the printing office. The growth of advertisements must also be taken into account in con sidering the evolution of the halfpenny journal. The income from this source alone made it possible to embark upon journalistic enterprises which would otherwise have been simply to court dis aster. The popular journal of the present day does not, however, owe its existence and success merely to questions of diminished cost and improved methods of production. A change has come over the public mind. The modern reader likes his news in a brief, handy form, so that he can see at a glance the main facts without the task of reading through wordy articles. This is especially the case with the man of business, who desires to master the news of the past 24 hours as he travels to his office in the morning. It is to economize time rather than money that the modern reader would often prefer a halfpenny paper; while the man of leisure, who likes to peruse leading articles and full de scriptive accounts, finds what he needs in the more highly priced journals. The halfpenny paper in England has not had to contend with the opposition that the penny newspaper met from its three penny contemporaries in the 'fifties and 'sixties. This is largely
due to the fact that in most cases the contributors, paper, print ing and general arrangement of the cheaper journal do not leave much room for criticism. G. A. Sala once complained that the reporters of the older papers objected to work side by side with him when he represented the first penny London daily (the Daily Telegraph), through fear of losing caste, but this does not now apply, for in the United Kingdom, France and the United States the cheap journals, owing to their vast circulation, are able to offer the best rates of remuneration, and can thus command the services of some of the best men in all the various departments of journalism." Newspaper Expansion.—The history of journalism in the 19th century has been divided by a well-known writer on the press, H. R. Fox Bourne, roughly into four stages: (I) perse cution; (2) liberation, 183o-1855; (3) cheapening, 1855-1875; (4) widening, since 1875. The first three stages have already been outlined, but the widening process, which has gone on ever since, must be traced to the wonderful progress in the technique of newspaper production and the vast increase in the reading public resulting from the development in State education. Per haps the most notable event at the beginning of the cheapening stage was the foundation of the Daily Telegraph and Courier in June 1855 at 2d., which was reduced to id. in ten weeks, with the result that in six months it had the then remarkable circulation of 27,00o a day. Julius Reuter founded in Paris in 1849 the great foreign news agency which still bears his name though it is now controlled by the Press Association, an organization for the gathering and dissemination of domestic news which was founded in 1865. This was preceded in 1863 by the Central Press and followed in 187o by the Central News and next the Exchange Telegraph with their ticker machines.
It is appropriate at this stage to sketch the history of the great English newspapers.