Camrose v. Rothermere

If there is a cock o' Fleet Street it is indisputably burly, hardheaded Viscount Rothermere, younger brother of the late great Northcliffe. On the foundation of his brother's Daily Mail he has piled newspaper properties which tower above all others in London. Last week England was treated to the spectacle of the potent Rothermere returning, scratched, bruised and bowed to his own front yard. He had tried for four years to extend his supremacy to the provinces. He had been soundly trounced by a greying, horsy-looking Welshman who was comparatively unknown in the British Press ten years ago. William Ewert Berry, Lord Camrose of Long Cross.

The fight began in 1928 but had been in the making since 1924 when the Berry Brothers, Sir William and Sir Corner, began to weary of the dominance of cocky Lord Rothermere and impish Lord Beaverbrook. The last two had been sharing the spoils of British newspaper warfare pretty much to suit themselves, notably the group owned by Sir Edward Hulton. Of that group Rothermere bought the Daily Sketch, Illustrated Sunday Herald (later the Sunday Graphic), the Evening Standard and a few Manchester sheets, then sold control of the Standard to Beaverbrook. His Daily Mail Trust already had 49% interest in Beaverbrook's Express.

In 1924 the Berry Brothers stepped forth. Onetime associates of Lord Rhondda, coal tycoon of South Wales, they were known to the publishing world only for their ownership of the Sunday Times, the Financial Times and the London Daily Graphic. Now they bought from Rothermere the Manchester papers which he had acquired from Hulton, formed them into Allied Newspapers Ltd. Next year they added three Glasgow papers to their string, two more in Newcastle, one in Sheffield, welded them into Allied Northern Newspapers Ltd. A year later they bought Rothermere's Sketch and Graphic. On top of those fat morsels, the Berry group gorged itself on Rothermere's Amalgamated Press, consisting of a hundred-odd weeklies, monthlies and other periodicals which had sprung from Northcliffe's first-born Answers. This they washed down with Lord Burnham's anemic London Daily Telegraph. Before Fleet Street realized what was happening, the Berry Brothers (meaning chiefly William) were largest publishing proprietors in the world. Rothermere decided this would never do. He was still supreme in London, but the Berrys had built up a prodigious string of papers in the provinces. That must be corrected. In 1928 Rothermere announced the birth of Northcliffe Newspapers Ltd., with an authorized capital of -L-5,500,000, to establish a chain of evening papers in the larger industrial cities. Sir William, said he airily, would not prove to be serious opposition. Sir William was ready for him. But the battle was costly to both.

At Derby Sir William--now Baron Camrose--snatched up the Express, while Rothermere had to content himself with the Telegraph. In Aberdeen he outbid

Rothermere for the Press & Journal, paying the absurd figure of -L-750,000 to keep the enemy out of camp. In Hull, Gloucester, Bristol, Staffordshire, many another town, Rothermere.got a foothold. Wherever both camps had papers, there was a furious fight for circulation. In Newcastle, Rothermere planted his Evening World in opposition to Camrose's old established Chronicle. In 100 days he ran the World's circulation to 176,000, two-and-a-half times the Chronicle's. Baron Camrose wailed in protest against the Rothermere circulation method, which was to give free and hearty dinners plus free insurance policies to longtime subscribers. But ruthless Rothermere's only reply was to snort his contempt of "old fogies" in the business. In Bristol Rothermere dazzled the natives by building the most modern and luxurious newspaper plant outside of London.

The provinces were getting better newspapers than they ever dreamed of. But all the publishing world knew the war was uneconomic in the extreme. Early last year the combatants began to pull their punches. Rothermere abandoned his expensive Newcastle paper on condition that Camrose withdraw from Bristol. Rumors of a more extensive truce gained in volume until last week when Northcliffe Newspapers Ltd., having never shown a profit, announced voluntary dissolution.

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