The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-01-02
The Penny Press In England,


Nearly two years have elapsed since the news
paper tax was repealed in England, and the
effects Of that measure have had time to be fully
tested. Several newspapers have been started at
low prices, and considerable efforts have been
made to force them into general circulation.
Some of these have died. Others still survive
but ii We may Judge frem their appearance and
the general tenor Of the reports concerning
them, they are not in healthy condition. In
word, so far as appears at present, the expert
nent Of cheap newspapers in the British capital
hos been failure. Yet it is quite certain that
cheap literary food and news are commodity
for which large demand exists in London and
the whole of England. 1t follows that the cause
Of the failure of the penny papers has been not
the wrODgness Of the basis upon which they have
been started, but some errors in the mode and
manner in which they have been conducted.
In examining the principal penny papers Of
London, such az the Star, and the Telegraph, the
first thing which strikes the eye Of one accus-
toned to the New York press is that they
are miniature copies Of the Tines They
have the same heavy editorial, about the
same heavy Parliamentary subject, writ
ten in the same conventional British
newspaper slang, and intended for the private
reading Of a select circle of politicians. Again
they have the same heavy Parliamentary de-
bates, whole columns of solid small type asOut
Maynooth grants, or the rights of the Bishops,
the same plan Their foreign correspondents en-
terrain them with grave and strictly gentlemanly
conjectures about the probable designs Of certain
foreign e0nrss. Their domestic reporters acquains
them with the fact that there was On eclipse visi
bic from the dome of st. Pauls, and that II. r.
Il. P. Albert went out shooting attended by di-
vers lords and colonies in livery. Their adver-
tisenents, even, arc cut in the same solid block,
and penned with the same strict eye to British
prOpriety. We have serious announcements that
the Typhus Assurance Company is prepared to
take lives at the shortest notice and on the low
est terms; that the ship Enterprise will sail for
Calcutta on such day; that Mr.. Robins sells
Paradise on Tuesday, and phaeton and pair
1.-THE property Of a gentleman removed to the
Contnent) on Wednesday, at ter.
Now, we cannot speak confidently for our
transatlantic neighbors, but We strongly suspect
that this sort Of reading is not more interest
ing TO them than it would bc to US. The
class OF society which enjoys elaborate
leading articles, full of double etti.dres
and delicate illusions, Maynooth grant debates,
and coy sopori6cs about the designs of the
Court Of Berlin or Austria, can afford to pay ten
cents for the Tines, and rather piques itself on
subscribing to the most expensive newspaper. To
attempt to wean the sturdy British commoner,
the man Of acres or bank stock, from his Times, is
certainly to lose ones pains.
On the other hand, the class Which would he
glad OF penny paper doc not care for any of
theae heavy matters. IL wants news but light,
agreeable, popular news; not stupid political
spcculatioDs; but accidents and murders and
battles and shipwrecks, and runaway matches, and
the like. Then il wants editorials not about the
private squabbles of lords, but about the high
price Of fish and the Sunday music, and the great
spread OF scarlet fever, aud the reasons why the
marines haven't got their prize money, and the
consequences of cmigrating 10 America, and The
right Of everybody who can read to vote, aud so
on, through all the range Of subjects which form
the ordinary conversation OF the intelli gent poor.
II should not do violence to these peoples minds,
by attempting TO cram down their ihroats things
they don't like; but should lead them, gently,
Turing them by proInisc Of familiar to a know
ledge of better things. Sofor domestic news. A
paragraph is al that Parliament deserves. The
rest Of the domestic news columns should be de-
voted to the reporting of such meetings as VIC
always give in full here, and they never notice 10
England and 10 a record Of the short but simple
annals OF the poor" paper framed on this
model would VIC think, be likely to succeed in
England at the price Of penny: and in the
course Of ten years it might have revenue Of
flo,ooo to 1000, and would he power in the
realm greater than the Tine, or the House Of
Lords.
But the idea, hitherto, seems to have fallen
upon stony ground.
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