£240,000, 61% Cumulative Preference Shares. £225,000, Ordinary Shares.
Daily Mirror Newspapers Ltd., hold a majority of the Ordinary Snares.
Majority of Ordinary Shares held by W. V. Bowater & Sons Ltd., which is in turn controlled by "Daily Mirror Newspapers Ltd." The Empire Paper Mills (1922) Ltd.
Capital: £400,000. Ordinary Shares of each.
All the shares are held by Associated Newspapers Ltd.
Pulp & Paper Mills Ltd.
Capital: $8,000,000, 7% Preference Shares. (Cumulative from October, 1929.) £3,000,000, 61% Mortgage Debentures.
135,000 Shares of Common Stock of no par value.
The founder of the business, William E. Berry, like Alfred Harmsworth before him, served an apprenticeship in the humble spheres of journalism, beginning on the Merthyr Times. He went to London in 1898 as sub-editor on the Investors' Guardian, and though he quickly showed a special penchant for financial jour nalism, he worked on the staffs of several papers before launch ing out as a newspaper proprietor. In 1901 he started the Adver tising World, the first production of the kind in the United King dom, and in the same year was joined by his brother Gomer. Together they started and owned various weekly and monthly papers, and when in 1915 they acquired the Sunday Times and introduced a new vitality into that old established newspaper they were already recognised as important newcomers to the press industry. In quick succession they acquired the Graphic, the Daily Graphic, the Bystander, the Financier, the Financial Times, the old established house of Cassells, with its periodicals and big publishing business, and Weldon's Fashion Journals. In 1923 they bought Kelly's Directories including the famous London Post Office Directory. Later an alliance was formed between the com pany owning Kelly's directories and Iliffe and Sons who own a leading group of trade and technical journals. Large printing
works went with these two concerns. While the foregoing were big transactions from the financial point of view the Berrys were not firmly established in the newspaper world until 1924 when they bought most of the publications of Edward Hulton Ltd. which had been acquired by Lord Rothermere and Lord Beaver brook, and formed the Allied Newspapers Ltd., which included the Sunday Times. The group contained widely circulated and popular newspapers, including the Manchester Daily Dispatch, the Manchester Evening Chronicle, the Sunday Chronicle, the Empire News, the Sporting Chronicle, and sundry other publica tions. About the same time they took over the control of another important newspaper property, the Sheffield Daily Telegraph and Evening Telegraph, with a •number of popular periodicals. An other big milestone in their progress was reached in the follow-_ ing year when they bought all the newspapers in Newcastle ex cept one, namely the North Mail, the Newcastle Evening Chron icle, the Sunday Sun, etc., and simultaneously acquired the Glas gow Daily Record, the Glasgow Evening News, and Sunday Mail. To this group was added in 1926 the North Eastern Daily Gazette of Middlesbrough, and the Allied Northern Newspapers Co. Ltd.
formed with a capital, including debentures, of four million pounds. Very soon afterwards the Berrys purchased from Lord Rothermere the two papers which he had retained from the Hulton group, namely, the Daily Sketch and the Sunday Graphic, which were formed into a separate company. Towards the end of 1927 Sir William and Sir Gomer Berry—both having been made baronets in recognition of their public services, Sir William in 1922 and Sir Gomer in 1927—startled the newspaper world by acquiring the Daily Telegraph from Lord Burnham and his family. Sir Edward Iliffe was a partner in this transaction. The new owners immediately began to put new life into this sound and sedate organ of the English commercial and middle classes. Important paper making works went with the newspaper. The capital involved in this transaction has not been made public.