How Big Is Too Big?

At its best, the British press is the Western world's most literary. At its worst, it is the most salacious. Either way, come brainstorm or bosom, it is the biggest, with seven London dailies boasting circulations of more than 1,000,000 (as against only one, the New York Daily News, in the U.S.). Indeed, as Britons themselves have recently come to realize, their press may be growing to death.

Amid much public outcry, two British press giants last week were battling for control of a third. The prospective prize: Odhams Press Ltd., which owns 82 magazines, 25 annuals, a racing daily and two newspapers--the Sunday People (circ. 5,467,872) and the Daily Herald, a Labor Party voice. Although the Daily Herald's circulation is 1,418,119 it manages to lose about $2,000,000 a year. Last month Fleet Street's Canadian-born Press Lord Roy Thomson, 66, proprietor of 80 papers in seven countries, made an offer to Odhams' board, headed by Sir Christopher Chancellor, longtime (1944-59) general manager of Reuters Ltd., the British press service. Thomson's proposal: an equitable stock exchange that would in effect merge Odhams with his own newspaper properties in Britain.

Rude Blow. Word of the impending Odhams-Thomson deal came as a rude blow to Cecil Harmsworth King, 60, head of the Daily Mirror group, a gigantic newspaper-magazine combine (total circulation: more than 16 million) that includes two of Britain's leading popular papers: the sex-salted Daily Mirror and the Sunday Pictorial, one of three newspapers that the watchdog Press Council last year called "a disgrace to British journalism." The other two: the People and News of the World.

Among King's magazines are many that are in direct competition with Odhams, particularly in the lucrative women's field, and King had no notion of letting Roy Thomson take over the Odhams properties. Bypassing both Chancellor and Thomson, he appealed directly to Odhams stockholders with an offer to buy them out for $1.20 per share above the market price. With Odhams' The People denouncing King's move as an "act of piracy" (see cut), Odhams Chairman Chancellor announced that his board was prepared to hike the stock dividend rate from 25% to 37 1/2%--if the stockholders would reject Cecil King. The announcement sent Odhams shares soaring in value past King's bid.

Four Lords. The fight over Odhams raised a huge ruckus--to the point where Prime Minister Harold Macmillan finally stepped in and ordered the appointment of a Royal Commission to investigate the entire British press situation. It seemed high time. The take-over of Odhams by either King or Thomson would accelerate a postwar trend toward merger and monopoly, sped by rising labor and production costs and serious advertising losses to television, that has placed control of more than half Britain's newspaper circulation in the hands of four press lords. Besides King and Thomson, the giants are:

P: Esmond Cecil Harmsworth,* Lord Rothermere, whose Associated Newspapers Ltd. publishes the Daily Mail, the Evening News, the Sunday Dispatch, the blatantly sensational Daily Sketch and a string of provincial newspapers. Combined circulation: 7,460,000.

P: Lord Beaverbrook, who owns the Yankee-baiting, empire-loving Daily Express, Sunday Express, Evening Standard and Glasgow Evening Citizen. Combined circulation: 8,850,000.

At week's end, Cecil King suddenly raised his ante with a new offer to pay $8.86 per share for Odhams stock -- $1.64 more than his original bid, and $1.56 over market. Yet even if this should win King victory in the battle for Odhams, one question remained that only the Royal Commissioners can decide after months, if not years, of exhaustive investigation. It is a question that affects the entire British press: How big is too big?

* Lord Rothermere and Cecil Harmsworth King are first cousins, both nephews of Lord Northcliffe, an earlier press lord and pioneer in British popular journalism.

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