PCC
JRN - 185
Newspaper Publishing
● UK National Press Today:
○ Have the greatest variety of newspapers in Britain from any nation in the world,
and this is particularly true of our national Press
○ Are we talking about by 'public press'
○ In these days of devolved government, the Scotsman or Herald would see
themselves as Scotland's national newspapers, and the Western Mail has claimed
to be Wales' national paper
○ May therefore be considered controversial to describe the national press as those
newspapers published in London and readily available in the UK
○ Remains a useful and generally accepted definition, and will be used in this book
○ Many reasons to the fact that we have a vibrant national news
○ London is Parliament's capital and residence, government offices, senior courts,
the royal family, financial institutions, and several of our leading corporations'
headquarters
○ It is the principal center of power
○ Also the source of most institutional variety news, from questions from prime
ministers to annual corporate general meetings, from major trials and appeals to
state occasions and cultural events such as first nights film premieres and theatre
○ Likely that the nation's capital will be focused on a press that aims to reach a
national audience
○ That is true of journalistic practice
○ Not generally of the newspaper industry's output aspects any more
● London - country's transport hub
○ Has traditionally been a significant factor in the creation of a national press
○ Development of a rail network radiating out of London terminal stations during
the nineteenth century created the ideal basis for rapid, national delivery of
London newspapers
○ Background of a small and densely populated world, the opportunity to produce
newspapers full of national and international news, printed late at night, the length
and breadth of the world on breakfast tables the next morning allowed the
national press to grow rapidly
● By the 1980s rail service continued
○ Every night and in the early hours of the morning - great London railway stations
were scenes of massive activity as bundles of freshly printed papers were
transported from vans to trains with special arrangement for this freight and sent
all over the land to distribution points