Cheesecakes and Ale in Britain

New competition in Fleet Street's nudespaper war

Perhaps the last thing that British newspaper readers needed was still another steamy tabloid featuring scandal, sports, crime and bare-breasted pinups. The format, rooted in the 19th century penny press and perfected in the frothy wake of the swinging '60s, now dominates British newsstands. The leading exponents of the "tits and bums" genre, as it is known on Fleet Street, are Publisher Rupert Murdoch's Sun (circ. 4 million) and the Daily Mirror (circ. 3.9 million). Each is fondled by twice as many customers a day as all four of Britain's major quality dailies combined. Total circulation for the Times, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times and Guardian is 2.1 million.

Yet last week Britain got another T. and B. tabloid, a near clone of the Sun and Mirror. Express Newspapers Ltd., publishers of the once middlebrow and increasingly titillating Daily Express (circ. 2.5 million), launched the 32-page Daily Star (initial circ., 1.25 million). Selling for 6p (roughly 12-c-), slightly less than the Sun and the Mirror, the Star is being printed on underused Express presses in Manchester and distributed only in the North and the Midlands for the moment. Penetration of the rest of England is planned for the spring. Says Star Editor in Chief Derek Jameson: "We've got to punch a hole in the Sun and Mirror market."

The first issue of the Star punched pretty hard, meaning that it was difficult to distinguish it from its rivals. The main selling point is a daily "Starbird," a full-page bare-breasted crumpet on page 7 (the Sun usually carries its cuties on page 3, the Mirror on page 5 or 7). The Star's top Stories: MODEL'S MYSTERY PLUNGE (she fell all of 12 ft. from the window of her lover's flat and broke her ankles), I WAS HIDING DRINK IN THE GROCERIES (a soccer player's drinking problem), BEAUTY AND THE PRIEST (a vicar who paints undraped females, one of whom is shown modeling for him).

The rival Sun hastened to keep, um, abreast. The day before the Star appeared, the Sun spread) its usual page 3 lovely across a centerfold and promised more to come. Next day the Sun put an unclad cupcake on page 1 (MY LOVE FOR SEX-CHANGE SAILOR, BY NUDE ROSIE) and, on the accustomed page 3, displayed not one but two topless twinkies.

The Mirror was the very model of restraint, running only its usual page 7 pinup. Chairman Percy Roberts had been quoted as promising, "The Daily Mirror will not go down into the gutter to join the war between the Star and the Sun.' Some Britons thought the Mirror had been somewhere in that vicinity all along, however, and the Star's London editor, Peter McKay, snorted, "Humbug!"

Justly irate feminists in Manchester picketed the Star's launch-night reception breakfast and altered some of the paper's promotional posters to read A STAR is PORN. Their protest did not prevent a sellout. Earlier, the Star had hurdled another obstacle: a demand by the Communist Morning Star for a court order barring the new paper from sowing confusion among the laboring classes by appropriating its stellar name. The judge lost no time denying the motion. Said he, quite accurately: "Only a moron in a hurry would be misled." -

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