JRN185 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: A Golden Age, The Sunday Guardian, David And Frederick Barclay
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JRN - 185
Newspaper Publishing
● Changing Political Economy of the Press
○ 1986 'Wapping Revolution' marked not just the end of the print unions' influence
○ Also the solidification of newspaper publishing's corporate era
○ Many of the long existing newspaper dynasties survived, most notably the
ownership of the daily mail publishing company Rothermere / Harmsworth
○ Other shifts in ownership, from the Telegraph and Express companies, heralded a
new period in which owners were not only well-known individuals but public
entities with shareholders and stock market values to concern them
■ To a large degree, businesses like any other
○ Wapping had changed the cost structure of newspaper production and had made
the opportunity to make large profits a very real one in principle at least and also
in reality
○ Certainly was the reason why a range of new titles came onto the market in the
few years after Wapping
○ The start-up costs were lower
○ The new labor relations climate instituted by Thatcher's government gave
employers supremacy in their relationship with organized labour
○ New technology for newspaper production streamlined the process, making it
simpler, more efficient and more profitable
○ Economic climate allowed investment capital from a variety of sources, including
venture capital
● A Golden Age of Newspapers:
○ Franklin
○ Defines the years between 1986 and 1990 as "more of a Golden Age for British
newspapers, with 10 new releases of national newspapers"
○ As the economy turned down, the golden age soon lost its shine
○ Of the ten new titles listed by Franklin
○ Today, the Journal, the Guardian, Sunday Guardian, the London Daily News,
News on Sunday, the Times, the Sunday Correspondent, the Journal on Sunday
and the European – only the two Independent titles and the Sport titles remained
○ Since then, the one national newspaper launch has been Daily Star Sunday, in
2002
○ Aimed at the very bottom of the redtop market like its daily counterpart
○ Sunday Company was founded in 1996 as a descendant of the European
○ Had by then entered the successful Barclay brothers and then closed
○ The company had a teetering life but a dedicated friend in Andrew Neil