Assignment in Africa

If Bennett changed the way news was reported, his son and successor, James Gordon Bennett Jr, changed the nature of news itself. Rather than waiting for stories to arrive, he made them happen. His debut came in 1869 when he heard that a Scottish missionary was missing in Africa. He known as in one of his top journalists, H M Stanley, and outlined his assignment. ‘I will tell you what you will do. Draw a thousand pounds now; and when you have gone through that draw one more thousand, and when that is spent draw another, and when that is finished, draw one more thousand, and so on – but find Livingstone!’ Thus was born one of probably the most famous rescues in history, which ended when Stanley entered an African village and uttered the words, ‘Dr Livingstone I presume?’ The Herald’s world shattering account left out numerous details, such as that Livingstone didn’t need rescuing – he gave the starving Stanley the best meal he had had in ages – and that he considered the Herald a ‘despicable newspaper’.

Such details would have spoiled the story and Bennett realized that accuracy did not necessarily make for increased sales; He also understood the importance of good ‘packaging’ – which meant doing away with unbroken columns of solid type and replacing them with eye-catching layouts, punchy headlines, and lively, easy-to-read reports, accompanied by cartoons, quizzes and competitions. This approach was adopted by other newspapers in the United States and was to turn out to be known as the ‘New Journalism’. The British press was slower to catch on, but the breakthrough came in 1896 with the launching from the Daily Mail by two brothers, Alfred and Harold Harmsworth (later Lord Northcliffe and Lord Rothermere), Costing only a halfpenny, and packed with a host of ‘human interest’ features, it built up a circulation of over 1,5 million in just five years.

Not satisfied with this success, the Harmsworths founded the Everyday Mirror in 1903. This was even racier than the Mail, which it soon overtook. The two papers made a fortune for their owners, who in 1908 bought The Times as a sign of their growing significance, Indeed, the so-called Press Barons – besides Lords Northcliffe and Rothermere, these included the Canadian owner from the Daily Express, Lord Beaverbrook, and the proprietor from the News of the World, Lord Riddell – had turn out to be a major political force, They had no compunction about trying to mould the views of their readers, and what passed for news was often no more than propaganda, But the influence from the old-style Press Barons was to be far surpassed by that of the modern newspaper magnates, Perhaps the most powerful of these is Rupert Murdoch, head from the £4 billion conglomerate, News International.

His newspaper career started modestly in 1952 when he inherited two little Australian journals, Since then, he has built up a media empire which spans newspapers, films, publishing and television, and takes in five of the largest British newspapers, including the Sun, The Times and also the News of the World. It is a feat to make even the Bennetts struggle for words.