War in Fleet Street

On New Year's Day, the British government gave the long-awaited word that it had increased the newsprint ration, and Fleet Street went forth to battle for circulation. Last week, as the gains and casualties were totted up after a month of heavy fighting, the London Daily Mirror claimed victory. By passing Lord Beaverbrook's Daily Express, the tabloid Mirror had become the world's biggest daily. In January its circulation had jumped 487,000, to 4,187,403. Commented the sound, small (circ. 42,000) weekly London Economist: "The success of the Daily Mirror is a sorry reflection upon a democracy, sometimes called educated, which prefers its information potted, pictorial, and spiced with sex and sensation."

With this flamboyant formula, plus a dash of socialism, roly-poly little Editor Harry Guy ("Mister Bart") Bartholomew of the Mirror had outdistanced the equally flamboyant Express. For years the world's biggest daily, the Express had added Dick Tracy and a letters column. But it had picked up only 130,000 readers, dropping to second place, with a January average of 3,985,336.

Neither the London Times nor the Manchester Guardian had sacrificed any of their dignity or respectability to capture new circulation, but both had made gains. The Times was up about 30,000, to 270,000, the Guardian up 13,000, to 150,000. But not all the faces in Fleet Street were smiling. The News Chronicle, which had also refused sensationalism for better news coverage, had dropped 30,000 readers, chiefly to the Times and the Guardian. Labor's official Daily Herald had slumped about 100,000, to 2,000,000.

Among the Sunday papers, everything was better than ever. The sexy, crime-packed News of the World climbed 400,000 readers, to 8,300,000, an alltime record for any weekly newspaper.

The New York Daily News, biggest U.S. daily, was not feeling so chesty. It reported a January circulation of 2,175,000 daily, 4,500,000 Sunday. That was well down from the peak of 2,409,000 daily in the fall of 1947, before the News raised its price from 2-c- to 3-c-.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.