identity among the English. The gap in quality is not so much between
Labour and Conservative, as between levels of ability to read and
appreciate serious news presented seriously. Of the five quality morning
papers only “The Daily Telegraph” is solidly Conservative; nearly all its
readers are Conservatives. “The Times” and “Financial Times” have a big
minority of non-Conservative readers. Of the popular papers only the “Daily
Mirror” regularly supports Labour. Plenty of Labour voters read popular
papers with Conservative inclinations, but do not change their publican
opinion because of what they have read. Some of them are interested only in
the human interest stories and in sport, and may well hardly notice the
reporting of political and economic affairs.
Except in central London there are very few newspaper kiosks in town
streets. This may be because most pavements are too narrow to have room for
them. In towns the local evening papers are sold by elderly men and women
who stand for many hours, stamping their feet to keep warm. Otherwise,
newspapers can be bought in shops or delivered to homes by boys and girls
who want to earn money by doing “paper-rounds”.
Most of the newspapers are owned by big companies, some of which have
vast interests in other things, ranging from travel agencies to Canadian
forests. Some have been dominated by strong individuals. The greatest of
the press “barons” have not been British in origin, but have come to
Britain from Canada, Australia or Czechoslovakia. The most influential
innovator of modern times is partly Indian, and spent his early years in
India. He pioneered the introduction of new technology in printing.
Among the “quality” papers the strongly Conservative “Daily Telegraph”
sells more than twice as many copies as any of the others. It costs less to
buy and its reporting of events is very thorough. The “Financial Times” has
a narrower appeal, but is not narrowly restricted to business news. “The
Guardian” has an old liberal tradition, and is in general a paper of the
Left.
The most famous of all British newspapers is “The Times”. It is not now,
and has never been, an organ of the government, and has no link with any
party. In 1981 it and “The Sunday Times”’ were taken over by the
international press company of the Australian Rupert Murdoch, which also
owns two of the most “popular” of the national papers. Its editorial
independence is protected by a supervisory body, but in the 1980s it has on
the whole been sympathetic to the Conservative government. The published
letters to the editor have often been influential, and some lead to,
prolonged discussion in further letters. Under the Murdoch regime it has
continued a movement away from its old austerity.
The popular newspapers are now commonly called “tabloids”, a word first
used for pharmaceutical substances compressed into pills. The tabloid
newspapers compress the news, and are printed on small sheets of paper.
They use enormous headlines for the leading items of each day, which are
one day political, one day to do with crime, one day sport, one day some
odd happening. They have their pages of political report and comment,
short, often over-simplified but vigorously written and (nowadays)
generally responsible. They thrive on sensational stories and excitement.
The two archetypal popular papers, the “Daily Mail”’ and “Daily Express”
were both built up by individual tycoons in the early 20th century. Both
had a feeling for the taste of a newly-literate public: if a man bites a
dog, that’s news. The “Daily Express” was built up by a man born in Canada.
He became a great man in the land, a close friend and associate of Winston
Churchill, and a powerful minister in his War Cabinet. The circulation of
the “Daily Express” at one time exceeded four million copies a day. Now the
first Lord Beaverbrook is dead, and the daily sales are not much more than
half of their highest figure. The history of the “Daily Mail”, with its
more conventional conservatism, is not greatly different.
In popular journalism the “Daily Mirror” became a serious rival of the
“Express” and “Mail” in the 1940s. It was always tabloid, and always
devoted more space to picture than to text. It was also a pioneer with
strip cartoons. After the Second World War it regularly supported the
Labour Party. It soon outdid the “Daily Express” in size of headlines,
short sentences and exploration of excitement. It also became the biggest-
selling daily newspaper. For many years its sales were about four million;
sometimes well above.
Until the 1960s the old “Daily Herald” was an important daily paper
reflecting the views of the trade unions and the Labour Party. Then it went
through several changes, until in the 1970s its successor, “The Sun”, was
taken over by Mr Murdoch’s company. In its new tabloid form it became a
right-wing rival to the “Daily Mirror”, with huge headlines and some
nudity. In the 1980s its sales reached four million and exceeded the “Daily
Mirror”. Mr Murdoch’s News International already owned “The News of the
World”’, a Sunday paper which has continued to give special emphasis to
scandals. But by 1990 its sales were only two-thirds of their former
highest figure of eight million.
For a very long time the press has been free from any governmental
interference. There has been no censorship, no subsidy. But for several
decades it has seemed that some newspapers have abused their freedom. In
competing with one another to get stories to satisfy a public taste for
scandal, reporters and photographers have been tempted to harass
individuals who have for one reason or another been involved, directly or
indirectly, in events which could excite public curiosity. Prominent people
of all kinds, as well as obscure people who come into the news as victims
of crimes or accidents, have been pursued into their homes for photographs
and interviews.
Local and Regional Papers.
Local morning papers have suffered from the universal penetration of the
London-based national press. Less than 20 survive in the whole England, and
their combined circulation is much less than that of “The Sun” alone. Among
local daily papers those published in the evenings are much more important.
Each of about 70 towns has one, selling only within a radius of 50 to 100
kilometres. The two London evening papers, the “News” and “Standard”,
together sold two million copies in 1980, but they could not survive, and
merged into one, now called “The London Evening Standard”.
Most local daily papers belong to one or other of the big press empires,
which leave their local editors to decide editorial policy. Mostly they try
to avoid any appearance of regular partisanship, giving equal weight to
each major political party. They give heavy weight to local news and defend
local interests and local industries.
The total circulation of all provincial daily newspapers, morning and
evening together, is around eight million: about half as great as that of
the national papers. In spite of this, some provincial papers are quite
prosperous. They do not need their own foreign correspondents; they receive
massive local advertising, particularly about things for sale.
The truly local papers are weekly. They are not taken very seriously,
being mostly bought for the useful information contained in their
advertisements. But for a foreign visitor wishing to learn something of the
flavour of a local community, the weekly local paper can be useful. Some of
these papers are now given away, not sold out but supported by the
advertising.
The Weekly and Periodical Press.
Good English writing is often to be found in the weekly political and
literary journals, all based in London, all with nationwide circulations in
the tens of thousands. “The Economist”, founded in 1841, probably has no
equal everywhere. It has a coloured cover and a few photographs inside, so
that it looks like “Time”’, “Newsweek” or “Der Spiegel”, but its reports
have more depth and breadth than any these. It covers world affairs, and
even its American section is more informative about America than its
American equivalents. Although by no means “popular”, it is vigorous in its
comments, and deserves the respect in which it is generally held.
“Spectator” is a weekly journal of opinion. It regularly contains well-
written articles, often politically slanted. It devotes nearly half its
space to literature and the arts.
“The Times” has three weekly supplements, all appeared and sold
separately. The “Literary Supplement” is devoted almost entirely to book
reviews, and covers all kinds of new literature. It makes good use of
academic contributors, and has at last, unlike “The Economist”, abandoned
its old tradition of anonymous reviews. “New Scientist”4, published by the
company which owns the “Daily Mirror”, has good and serious articles about
scientific research, often written by academics yet useful for the general
reader.
One old British institution, the satirical weekly “Punch”’, survives,
more abrasive than in an earlier generation yet finding it hard to keep the
place it once had in a more secure social system. Its attraction,
particularly for one intellectual youth, has been surpassed by a new rival,
“Private Eye”, founded in 1962 by people who, not long before, had run a
pupils’ magazine in Shrewsbury School. Its scandalous material is admirably
written on atrocious paper and its circulation rivals that of “The
Economist”.
Glossy weekly or monthly illustrated magazines cater either for women or
for any of a thousand special interests. Almost all are based in London,
with national circulations, and the women’s magazines sell millions of
copies. These, along with commercial television, are the great educators of
demand for the new and better goods offered by the modern consumer society.
In any big newsagent’s shop the long rows of brightly covered magazines
seem to go on for ever; beyond the large variety of appeals to women and
teenage girls come those concerned with yachting, tennis, model railways,
gardening and cars. For every activity there is a magazine, supported
mainly by its advertisers, and from time to time the police bring a pile of
pornographic magazines to local magistrates, who have the difficult task of
deciding whether they are sufficiently offensive to be banned.
These specialist magazines are not cheap. They live off an infinite
variety of taste, curiosity and interest. Their production, week by week
and month by month, represents a fabulous amount of effort and of felled
trees. Television has not killed the desire to read.
Radio and Television.
Since the 1970s 98% of British households have had television sets able
to receive four channels, two put out by the BBC, two by commercial
companies. Commercial satellite and cable TV began to grow significantly in
1989-1990, and by 1991 the two main companies operating in Britain had
joined together as British Sky Broadcasting. By 1991 about one household in
ten had the equipment to receive this material.
Every household with TV must by law pay for a licence, which costs about
the same for a year as a popular newspaper every day.
Unlike the press, mass broadcasting has been subject to some state
control from its early days. One agreed purpose has been to ensure that
news, comment and discussion should be balanced and impartial, free of
influence by government or advertisers. From 1926 first radio, then TV as
well, were entrusted to the BBC, which still has a board of governors
appointed by the government. The BBC’s monopoly was ended in 1954, when an
independent board was appointed by the Home Secretary to give licences to
broadcast (“franchises”) to commercial TV companies financed by
advertising, and called in general independent television (ITV). These
franchises have been given only for a few years at a time, then renewed
subject to various conditions.
In 1990 Parliament passed a long and complex new Broadcasting Act which
made big changes in the arrangements for commercial TV and radio. The old
Independent Broadcasting Authority, which had given, franchises to the
existing TV and radio companies, was abolished. In its place, for TV alone,
a new Independent Television Commission was set up in 1991, with the task
of awarding future franchises, early in the 1990s, either to the existing
companies or to new rivals which were prepared to pay a higher price. The
Commission also took over responsibility for licensing cable programme
services, including those satellite TV channels which are carried on cable
networks. The new law did not change the status of the BBC, but it did have
the purpose of increasing competition, both among broadcasters and among
producers. It envisaged that a new commercial TV channel, TVS, would start
in the early 1990s.
The general nature of the four TV channels functioning in 1991, seems
likely to continue, with BBC1 and ITV producing a broadly similar mixture
of programmes in competition with each other. ITV has a complex structure.
Its main news is run by one company, Independent Television News, its early
morning TV— a.m. by another. There are about a dozen regional companies
which broadcast in their regions for most each day, with up to ten minutes
of advertisements in each hour, between programmes or as interruptions at
intervals of twenty or thirty minutes. These regional companies produce
some programmes of local interest and some which they sell to other
regions, so that for much of each day the same material is put out all
through the country. Some of BBCl’s programmes are similarly produced by
its regional stations. BBC2 and the independent Channel 4 (which has its
own company) are both used partly for special interest programmes and for
such things as complete operas.
By international standards it could reasonably be claimed that the four
regular channels together provide an above-average service, with the
balance giving something to please most tastes and preferences. Some quiz-
shows and “soap operas”’, or long-running sagas, attract large numbers of
viewers and to some extent the BBC competes for success in this respect.
But minority preferences are not overlooked. In Wales there are Welsh-
language programmes for the few who want them. There are foreign language
lessons for the general pubic, as well as the special programmes for
schools and the Open University2. BBC news has always kept a reputation for
objectivity, and the independent news service is of similar quality.
Television is probably the most important single factor in the continuous
contest for the public’s favour between the political parties. Parties and
candidates cannot buy advertising time. At intervals each channel provides
time for each of the three main political parties for party-political
broadcasts, and during an election campaign a great deal of time is
provided for parties’ election, always on an equal basis.
Minor parties get time, based partly on the number of their candidates.
In Wales and Scotland the nationalist parties get TV time on the same basis
as the three others. Studios and transmitters must be provided free of
charge. But often a party prefers to film a broadcast outside the studio at
its own expense, for greater impact.
BBC TV Europe broadcasts some of its own programmes by satellite, and
from 1991 BBC TV International began to sell and distribute its World
Service TV news in English and some other languages.
The BBC’s Radio 4 is the main general interest radio service, with some
items run by regional studios. Radio 3 is for minority interests, including
music, “2” for light entertainment, “1” for pop music and “5” for sport,
education and children’s programmes. There are also several dozens local
BBC radio stations, covering the whole country. The world wide radio
service has been established for long time, and is the activity of the BBC
to receive a government subsidy.
The BBC runs several dozens of local radio stations, which compete with
independent commercial rivals, financed by advertisements. All provide a
mixture of local news and comment, with some entertainment matter, mainly
pop music, in between. In the 1990s there should be one or more new
commercial radio stations broadcasting nationwide, including one “non-pop”
station, possibly for continuous broadcasts of classical music.
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