tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/daily-express-49645/articlesDaily Express – The Conversation2023-05-29T20:07:48Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2049142023-05-29T20:07:48Z2023-05-29T20:07:48ZRupert Murdoch: how a 22-year-old ‘zealous Laborite’ turned into a tabloid tsar<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527924/original/file-20230524-10299-l4fgym.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C17%2C3970%2C1976&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The successor: Rupert Murdoch, on right, with his parents Sir Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch around 1950.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">New South Publishing</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In September 1953, Rupert Murdoch arrived in sleepy Adelaide to take up his inheritance of News Limited. He was only 22 and had little experience of working at a newspaper, let alone running one, but his family had inherited a majority stake in the company following the death of Rupert’s father, the well-known journalist, editor and media executive <a href="https://theconversation.com/book-review-before-rupert-keith-murdoch-and-the-birth-of-a-dynasty-49491">Keith Murdoch</a>. </p>
<p>After Rupert had completed his matriculation at Geelong Grammar in 1949 with marks that had not impressed his parents, he had worked briefly as a cadet reporter at the Melbourne Herald under his father’s watchful eye, spending a few months at the police courts with a friend from school before heading off to the United Kingdom.</p>
<p>Keith had accompanied him to London in early 1950 and introduced Rupert to leading figures in Fleet Street, helping his son land a summer stint as a junior reporter on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Gazette">Birmingham Gazette</a> – where Rupert made an impression when he told the proprietor the editor was so incompetent he should be sacked.</p>
<p>Rupert had then studied at Worcester College, Oxford. Again, he did not excel academically, but his contemporaries noticed he was financially astute and a shrewd problem-solver and risk-taker. Like Rupert Greene, his namesake grandfather on his mother’s side, Rupert dabbled in gambling and drinking beer more than his parents felt was good for him. And, like his father had been as a young man, Rupert was attracted to Labour politics. He famously kept a bust of Lenin in his room at Oxford. </p>
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<span class="caption">Keith Murdoch was confident son Rupert would ‘outgrow his socialist ideals’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
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<p>Keith tolerated Rupert’s excursion into left-wing politics and, in earlier years, had put him in touch with Labor prime minister <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Chifley">Ben Chifley</a>, who always replied courteously to Rupert’s letters. Keith told Chifley his 18-year-old son “is at present a zealous Laborite but will I think (probably) eventually travel the same course of his father”.</p>
<p>In the last months of his life, Keith was confident that Rupert was on the right track and would outgrow his <a href="https://theconversation.com/socialism-is-a-trigger-word-on-social-media-but-real-discussion-is-going-on-amid-the-screaming-113507">socialist</a> ideals. After finishing his studies at Oxford, Rupert worked on the subeditor’s desk at Lord Beaverbrook’s Daily Express, edited by the legendary <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Christiansen">Arthur Christiansen</a>, considered one of Fleet Street’s greatest editors.</p>
<p>Christiansen was obsessed with detail and worked up to 18 hours a day for more than 20 years. His memorable instructions to staff were handed down through the ages, including his exhortation to “always, always tell the news through people”.</p>
<p>The Daily Express was chosen for Rupert because it was one of the toughest and most prestigious schools in journalism. Keith had personally asked Beaverbrook to arrange this work experience for his son and Rupert trained as a down-table sub (a junior subeditor).</p>
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<span class="caption">The Daily Express was ‘one of the toughest and most prestigious schools in journalism’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Gillfoto">gillfoto</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>When Rupert took up the reins at News Limited, that was the extent of his experience – a few months each at the Herald, the Birmingham Gazette and the Daily Express, plus all he had picked up from his father’s shop talk at home and the detailed letters Keith sent Rupert during his school years.</p>
<p>As part of the grandeur surrounding his rise, it is often said that Rupert built an empire out of just one tired Adelaide newspaper. To be pedantic, that is not quite true. When he inherited a controlling interest in News Limited, it published the News (Adelaide’s afternoon newspaper), the (Sunday) Mail (also in Adelaide) and the Barrier Miner (in Broken Hill). It also had a large stake in Southdown Press, which was housed in West Melbourne and published the national women’s magazine <a href="https://www.newidea.com.au/">New Idea</a>. </p>
<p>The company also controlled radio station 2BH Broken Hill and had a minor holding in 5DN Adelaide. Certainly, it was a small company by comparison with the then giant of the media industry, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Herald_and_Weekly_Times">Herald and Weekly Times</a>, but it was still a substantial start for a 22-year-old. It is true that the News was a tired and insignificant paper. It had a stagnant circulation and was drained of resources and revenue. </p>
<p>When Rupert arrived in Adelaide, he set about changing that and gave himself the unusual title of “publisher”. Old-timers raised their eyebrows and expected Rupert would sit in a corner at the News for a few years until he knew enough to contribute. They were misjudging him.</p>
<p>Rupert was a hands-on proprietor from the beginning. Editorially, he initially relied on, and gave a good deal of leeway to, <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rivett-rohan-deakin-11533/text20575">Rohan Rivett</a>, who had been editor of the News for almost two years. </p>
<p>Rupert and Rivett were already close friends because Keith had sent Rivett to report from London between 1949 and 1951, with a side instruction to keep an eye on the boss’s son. Rivett, the grandson of <a href="https://theconversation.com/alfred-deakin-provides-a-contrast-to-an-abbott-lost-for-words-37900">Alfred Deakin</a>, had been a war correspondent, and for three and a half years a prisoner of war, including on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/world-war-ii-ended-70-years-ago-while-the-forgotten-death-railway-was-completed-45612">Burma–Thailand Railway</a>.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c2jSxlORxiM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">News editor Rohan Rivett was the grandson of Alfred Deakin.</span></figcaption>
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<p>From Keith’s perspective, Rivett had some radical views but he was satisfied that Rivett was no <a href="https://theconversation.com/still-under-the-bed-red-baitings-long-history-in-australian-politics-and-why-its-unlikely-to-succeed-now-177543">communist</a>, and in the early 1950s he was a favourite Murdoch confidante. Rivett even named his son after Keith. </p>
<p>When Rupert arrived in Adelaide, Keith’s older protégé turned nemesis, Lloyd Dumas, chairman of the Advertiser, gave Rupert a memorable welcome by trying to push him out of business before Rupert even got started. On October 24 1953, the Advertiser launched the Sunday Advertiser.</p>
<p>It was designed to crush News Limited’s weekend paper, the Mail, which was the biggest-circulation paper in the state and a solid earner. The intention was to force Murdoch’s heirs to sell out so the Herald Weekly Times could reclaim the News. Dumas was a knight, a pillar of society in Adelaide, a city renowned for its “luminous and eccentric” establishment, its British-style manored estates, and blue-blood <a href="https://adelaide-club.asn.au/">Adelaide Club</a> members.</p>
<p>But Rupert showed immediately that he was not going to play by the usual rules of conduct, including the unwritten rule that newspaper owners did not publish stories about each other. A month after the Sunday Advertiser launched, Rupert’s Mail published a front-page story airing some industry dirty linen. </p>
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<span class="caption">Adelaide was renowned for its ‘luminous and eccentric’ establishment and manored estates. Pictured: St Peter’s Cathedral.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>It reported that, after Keith Murdoch’s death, Dumas had gone to his widow, bound her to secrecy so she could not consult anyone, and told her to sell the family’s controlling stake in the company to him. When Elisabeth refused, he gave her an ultimatum: either sell him the Mail, or the Advertiser would start a new weekend paper and drive the Mail out of business. The article included excerpts from a private letter Dumas had sent to Elisabeth.</p>
<p>Dumas and Rupert fought a “nasty circulation war”. The challenger Sunday Advertiser was the better product but many of the Mail’s readers stayed loyal and it remained in front. As Adelaide was not large enough to support two Sunday papers, both companies bled money for nearly two years before the opponents called a truce and agreed to merge. Both took 50% of the newly merged Sunday Mail from December 1955. With no competition, it was very profitable. Rupert considered this co-venture a great victory and let it be known that Dumas had backed down.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-secret-history-of-news-corp-a-media-empire-built-on-spreading-propaganda-116992">The secret history of News Corp: a media empire built on spreading propaganda</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Liberalism and sensationalism</h2>
<p>Rupert let Rivett develop the News into the most liberal daily paper in the country, one with a social conscience that published very different views to
the establishment Advertiser. </p>
<p>Murdoch learned all he could by working in various roles at the paper and developed a reputation for his overwhelming energy and for rolling up his sleeves and observing every phase of the production process. He was also becoming known for criticising and trying to make constant changes. One overwhelmed staff member called them “Rupertorial interruptions”.</p>
<p>Rivett focused on editorial while Murdoch focused on increasing advertising revenue, improving circulation, cutting costs and making production more efficient. Murdoch was particularly good at gaining retail and some new classified advertising for the News. News Limited’s profits jumped from $62,000 when he began in 1953, to $432,000 in 1959.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Rupert Murdoch was known from the start for being very involved in his media properties.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Murdoch had his eye on expansion immediately. His first move was to expand News Limited’s interest in magazine publisher Southdown Press. His next move,
in October 1954, was to acquire Western Press Ltd, publisher of Western Australia’s only Sunday paper, the Sunday Times, in Perth. (It also owned a Saturday publication called the Mirror, and 20 country newspapers.)</p>
<p>The Sunday Times was where Murdoch honed his <a href="https://theconversation.com/rupert-murdoch-and-the-news-international-tabloid-grotesquerie-2330">tabloid techniques</a>. The paper was “tawdry” even before Murdoch bought it, but <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/902842.Murdoch?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=GwPBFNOkUt&rank=1">he made it</a> more “sparkily so”. </p>
<p>Murdoch began flying to Perth every Friday to personally hammer the paper into a more sensational style to increase its sales. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2298216.Citizen_Murdoch">Murdoch biographer, Thomas Kiernan</a>, said the Sunday Times was the birthplace of Murdoch journalism, “the exaggerated story filled with invented quotes; the slavishly sensationalised yarns; the eye-shattering, gratuitously blood-curdling headline”. </p>
<p>An infamous early one was “LEPER RAPES VIRGIN, GIVES BIRTH TO MONSTER BABY”. He also used competitions and zealous promotion to sell the paper. These became some of the other hallmarks of Murdoch’s tabloid approach.</p>
<p>The Sunday Times purchase was funded by a loan. Rupert’s new bank was the Commonwealth Bank in Sydney. It was then relatively small and had become a trading bank only in June 1953. Its general manager, Alfred Norman “Jack” Armstrong, and Vern Christie, who later became a managing director, thought Murdoch was a good risk, commercially savvy and always met his repayments.</p>
<p>The Commonwealth Bank’s willingness to lend Murdoch huge sums would prove crucial to the growth of his media empire. </p>
<p>Rupert stayed in Adelaide for seven years, from 1953 to 1960. Aside from newspaper production, he was also learning everything he could about radio and television, including on trips to the United States. It was a crucial turning point when Murdoch’s Southern Television Corporation Ltd (60% owned by News Limited) <a href="https://televisionau.com/2019/09/tv-at-60-tv-comes-to-adelaide.html">was granted</a> one of two commercial television licences in Adelaide in 1958.</p>
<p>After a visit to the Philadelphia office of the popular US magazine TV Guide, Murdoch launched an Australian weekly television magazine. Southdown Press began publishing <a href="https://televisionau.com/feature-articles/tv-week">TV-Radio Week</a> in December 1957, 14 months after Australian television had begun (it was called TV Week from 1958). Murdoch was also buying up small papers in remote towns across the country. He acquired the Cold War–born NT News and the Mount Isa Mail at the end of 1959. </p>
<p>Murdoch would fly into town in a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_DC-3">DC-3</a> and haggle with the owner. Former News Limited executive Rodney Lever said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>His technique was simple: he would bully the owner into selling his paper with a threat that he would start a competing paper in the town.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Murdoch soon turned the NT News into a tri-weekly, and the Mount Isa Mail into a bi-weekly. By 1965, both were daily papers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-irreverence-to-irrelevance-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-bad-tempered-tabloids-113656">From irreverence to irrelevance: the rise and fall of the bad-tempered tabloids</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Bold moves</h2>
<p>Murdoch made two bold moves in Adelaide in 1958–59. One was political
and the other commercial, and as journalist and author George Munster noted, these moves were not well coordinated; they ran in opposite directions.</p>
<p>The News took a strong stance on the trial of <a href="https://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/catalogue_resources/92649.pdf">Rupert Max Stuart</a>, an Indigenous carnival worker who had been convicted in 1958 of the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl. </p>
<p>After a confession to police over which there hung significant doubt, Stuart was sentenced to death and his conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court of South Australia. Rivett was convinced Stuart had not had a fair trial and the News campaigned fiercely for the case to be reopened. The paper’s attacks on authorities in South Australia’s police force and courts were the talk of the city.</p>
<p>Murdoch supported Rivett “wholeheartedly” and saw the case as a way to attack both the Adelaide establishment and the conservative <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Playford_IV">Playford government</a>, which had been in office since 1938 as the beneficiary of a ruthlessly gerrymandered election system.</p>
<p>Labor politician <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Cameron">Clyde Cameron</a>, who was dining and socialising with Murdoch at this time, found Rupert “was much further Left than me”. When the case was at its height, Murdoch said to him: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m in a spot, Clyde. Myers [sic] have phoned to say that unless we drop our campaign in favour of Stuart, they are going to withdraw all of their advertising from the News and that means a lot to us … I told them to go to hell.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Playford was forced to set up a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Commission_in_regard_to_Rupert_Max_Stuart">Royal Commission</a> to examine <a href="https://sahistoryhub.history.sa.gov.au/events/stuart-case">the Stuart case</a> and the News ran fierce attacks on it too, including lambasting royal commissioners for improperly sitting in judgement of their own earlier decisions. The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-18/max-stuart-rupert-murdoch-true-crime-case/10614666">News’ coverage</a> landed Rivett, Murdoch and other employees in court on a string of charges, including the archaic, rarely used charge of seditious libel, which could have seen them imprisoned. </p>
<p>Rupert was said to be deeply shaken by the potential risks and how far matters escalated. Eventually, the charges were dismissed and the News ran an editorial apologising and disavowing criticism of the judiciary members. There was
speculation that Playford had dropped the charges in return for the News halting its campaign against his government.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527678/original/file-20230523-19-t87qwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527678/original/file-20230523-19-t87qwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527678/original/file-20230523-19-t87qwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527678/original/file-20230523-19-t87qwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527678/original/file-20230523-19-t87qwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527678/original/file-20230523-19-t87qwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527678/original/file-20230523-19-t87qwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527678/original/file-20230523-19-t87qwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">US President John F. Kennedy meets a young Rupert Murdoch (on right) in the oval office in 1961.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An old friend sacked</h2>
<p>While the Adelaide establishment was still buzzing about the Stuart case, Murdoch made an audacious bid to gain control of the Advertiser. Backed by the Commonwealth Bank, Murdoch made an offer of more than £14 million in shares and cash to Advertiser Newspapers Ltd. At a time when News Limited had less than £1.8 million in shareholders’ funds, it was one of the biggest corporate takeover bids in Australian history.</p>
<p>Dumas quashed the bid. The Advertiser announced in its pages that its board rejected the takeover bid and Dumas announced that the holders of more than 50% of Advertiser shares refused to accept Murdoch’s offer. </p>
<p>Dumas added tartly that the South Australian community and the paper’s shareholders have a “real pride in the Advertiser and would never agree to its being modelled on the News”, nor let Murdoch, as head of Cruden Investments, “a Victorian company”, exercise “complete individual control” over the Advertiser as he did with the News.</p>
<p>The Herald Weekly Times’ old hands had blocked Murdoch but he had made a strong impression and provided a bold declaration of his ambitions. He had also shown the business world he could muster significant capital and it was becoming obvious he would not easily be bought or driven out.</p>
<p>Five weeks after the last charges over the Stuart Royal Commission were withdrawn, Murdoch wrote a curt note from Sydney that “summarily dismissed” Rivett as editor.</p>
<p>This was a man Murdoch had considered “like the brother he never had”. Some speculated that Rivett’s sacking may have been part of the deal with Playford. Others believed it was inevitable because Murdoch was asserting himself more and his priorities were changing. Either way, it was strong evidence that Murdoch was not going to let friendship get in the way of business.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527622/original/file-20230523-15-u9lnp7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527622/original/file-20230523-15-u9lnp7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527622/original/file-20230523-15-u9lnp7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527622/original/file-20230523-15-u9lnp7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527622/original/file-20230523-15-u9lnp7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527622/original/file-20230523-15-u9lnp7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527622/original/file-20230523-15-u9lnp7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527622/original/file-20230523-15-u9lnp7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>The Stuart case had happened at a formative time for Murdoch, when his political views were still developing. Back in 1953, with a state election imminent in South Australia, he had written to Rivett, “I implore you not to speak out too loudly on either side.” </p>
<p>Personally, Rupert had strong views on <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-robert-menzies-and-the-birth-of-the-liberal-national-coalition-74533">Robert Menzies</a> though. He was said to loathe the prime minister because he was part of the Melbourne business establishment that had rejected him after his father’s death. Menzies had essentially chosen Jack Williams at the Herald and Weekly Times over Murdoch. Murdoch also thought Menzies was holding Australia – and himself – back.</p>
<p>In 1958–59, Murdoch had tried taking on the establishment in Adelaide by bringing on a showdown with the premier and the Adelaide Club, but had to back down. The experience seemed to chasten him and turn him away from advocacy journalism for the moment, and toward safer forms that did not clash with his commercial goals.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited extract from <a href="https://unsw.press/books/media-monsters/">Media Monsters: The Transformation of Australia’s Newspaper Empires</a> by Sally Young (New South Publishing).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204914/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Young received funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) future fellowship scheme to study newspaper history and press power. Since 2019, she has been a research committee member of the Centre for Public Integrity which conducts research aimed at strengthening Australian democracy.</span></em></p>Young Rupert took up his inheritance in Adelaide in 1953 with minimal journalistic experience. He quickly revealed himself to be a ruthless rule-breaker and hands on, expansionary proprietor.Sally Young, Professor of Political Science, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1554232021-02-17T14:48:28Z2021-02-17T14:48:28ZBritain’s right-wing tabloids have turned to ‘green nationalism’ to sell climate action<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384743/original/file-20210217-13-hr1ugk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lenscap Photography / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Britain’s right-wing tabloids have historically not been champions of action on climate change and other environmental issues. In fact they have prominently opposed such action, regularly providing space for <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4503006/global-warming-sums-experts-bullies-james-delingpole-opinion/">climate scepticism</a> and running frontpage stories that <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/leo-mckinstry/370670/Global-warming-is-nothing-more-than-an-expensive-con">challenged the existence of global warming</a> and <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/146138/100-reasons-why-climate-change-is-natural">its relationship to human activity</a>. </p>
<p>In this context, the recent launch of a “major new” environmental campaign by the Daily Express for a “<a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/1394652/Green-Britain-campaign-daily-express-pollution-wildlife-nature-boris-johnson">Green Britain Revolution</a>” has generated an understandable mix of surprise, distrust and <a href="https://twitter.com/LeoHickman/status/1358724099179167744">wary welcome</a> from long-term supporters of environmental change.</p>
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<p>The Sun has also launched a less prominent but similarly focused “Green Team” campaign encouraging its readers to make “<a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/12904172/green-team-campaign-changes-save-money-planet/#comments">small lifestyle changes to help save the planet</a>”. The paper has also <a href="https://www.news-future.com/p/as-environmental-concerns-grow-the">appointed a dedicated correspondent</a> to provide sustained coverage of the run up to the UN’s COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow in November 2021.</p>
<p>Whatever the reason for their <a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/gary-jones-express-long-way-as-paper-surprises-with-climate-change-campaign/">new-found concern for environmental action</a> (and it’s still not clear how much the <a href="https://twitter.com/ColinBaines1/status/1360604961755852801">overall editorial line</a> has changed), UK tabloids require new kinds of storytelling. Climate change is a notoriously difficult story to tell. Many of the existing frames have been seen as too negative, too reliant on doom and gloom and apocalyptic scenarios, or perceived as elitist and “holier-than-thou”, too eager to blame unthinking ignorant consumers. </p>
<p>I have researched environmental storytelling in <a href="https://www.keele.ac.uk/humanities/study/mcc/ourpeople/pawasbisht/">my work</a> for the past ten years. So, how have historically right-wing tabloids, that in the past denied and belittled climate change, framed the issue so that it is relevant to their largely conservative readerships?</p>
<h2>Framing environmentalism as patriotic duty</h2>
<p>The campaigns – and the reporting accompanying them – demonstrate astute understanding of the need to make environmentalism resonant with the moral and emotional values of their readership. Nationalism, invoking a history of global leadership on the part of the UK, and green entrepreneurialism, the promise of a prosperous future for the nation powered by a green economy, are two key components of the storytelling. </p>
<p>The Daily Express campaign for instance is presented as a national mission, a “green crusade”. The headline accompanying the launch invites readers to <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/1394685/green-britain-dale-vince-ecotricity-daily-express-campaign">get behind the “Green Industrial Revolution”</a> positioning the industrial revolution as a glorious heritage of “ingenuity and ambition” that will engender the new green future.</p>
<p>The narrative is further personified in the choice of “green entrepreneur” <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1397855/Green-Britain-campaign-plant-trees">Dale Vince</a> as a key spokesperson for the campaign. Vince is a former hippy who now owns the electricity company Ecotricity, and his life story of making millions from green energy companies emphasises a “can do” optimism and a focus on technological solutions to environmental crises. The pandemic is also used as part of the narrative. Britain’s role in the development of the COVID vaccine is cited to strengthen the claim the country should lead the global environmental challenge. </p>
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<p>Overall, the climate crisis is presented as a problem that is eminently solvable through green energy technologies and entrepreneurial innovation. These are areas where Britain has existing global strengths, and therefore it is seen as an opportunity for a glorious national revival that is both morally sound and materially prosperous.</p>
<h2>Limits and dangers of green nationalism</h2>
<p>What we are seeing is the development of a story about environmentalism informed by nationalistic pride and the promise of a materially better future. If successful, this kind of storytelling would allow an older and more conservative readership to feel part of the wider environmentalism narrative, and as a result they might even put their weight behind demands for urgently required policy action. </p>
<p>In the long term, it may help to gradually shift some established conservative political orthodoxies that have prevented climate action. For instance, a key demand of the Daily Express campaign is for the UK government to <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/1394662/green-britain-zero-for-zero-explained-sign-express-petition">actively intervene in the economy</a> – using taxes, subsidies and regulations to favour greener enterprises and penalise those that harm the environment. This idea of active intervention from the state in the market in favour of a green economy is a significant shift in conservative political values. </p>
<p>On the other hand there remain significant problems. The invocation of the national frame, here presented as global leadership motivated by ecological concerns, could easily slip into a more problematic and exclusionary vision of <a href="https://theconversation.com/green-nationalism-how-the-far-right-could-learn-to-love-the-environment-76035">preserving “a green and pleasant land”</a>. A linked problem of a retreat into the local, already evident in the Sun’s urge to “<a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/JS-Graphic-ECO-Part4.jpg">go local, buy local</a>”, is that it removes focus from the systemic and global issues underpinning climate change and pollution. </p>
<p>Finally, the uncritical narrative of a glorious national past and prosperous green future silences issues around inequalities in the experiences and effects of environmental degradation both <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1361920919300392#!">within the UK</a> and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/climate-change-reinforces-inequalities-even-in-developed-countries/a-50596957">globally</a>. Neither the Express nor the Sun afford much space to global climate justice and the narratives and demands of <a href="https://www.redpepper.org.uk/an-open-letter-to-extinction-rebellion/">environmental movements from the global south</a>. Ultimately, these are significant limitations that should temper our enthusiasm.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155423/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pawas Bisht receives funding from the British Academy's Humanities and Social Sciences’ Tackling Global Challenges Programme, supported under the UK Government's Global Challenges Research Fund.</span></em></p>An academic expert in environmental storytelling reads the Sun and the Express.Pawas Bisht, Lecturer in Media, Communications and Culture, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/958812018-05-04T09:09:09Z2018-05-04T09:09:09ZDaily Express: what a difference a new owner has made (especially if you are a migrant)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217251/original/file-20180502-153895-1v7m5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C2%2C931%2C690&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Daily Express: a history of hostility towards migrants.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Liz Gerard</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/apr/24/daily-express-editor-gary-jones-calls-its-front-pages-downright-offensive">Downright offensive and Islamophobic</a>: these words were used to describe the Daily Express – not from the usual left-leaning critic but directly from the mouth of the newspaper’s latest editor. Gary Jones pulled no punches when quizzed by MPs over the editorial stance of the right wing mid-market tabloid.</p>
<p>“Cumulatively, some of the headlines that have appeared in the past have created an Islamophobic sentiment which I find uncomfortable,” Jones told the home affairs select committee, which is investigating the treatment of minority groups in print media. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is my responsibility to ensure content is accurate and newspapers don’t look at stereotypical views that may or may not be around in the general public. I should be held to account and be answerable.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jones was appointed editor of the Daily and Sunday Express after Trinity Mirror <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/all-change-as-daily-express-and-daily-star-editors-leave-following-trinity-mirror-buyout/">bought the two papers</a> as well as stablemate the Daily Star as part of an acquisition of publisher Northern & Shell in March 2018. The deal also included Desmond’s OK! magazine. (It should be noted that the culture secretary, Matt Hancock <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43963099">has asked</a> the competition authority to look into the deal.)</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217257/original/file-20180502-153908-1o0mzb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217257/original/file-20180502-153908-1o0mzb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217257/original/file-20180502-153908-1o0mzb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217257/original/file-20180502-153908-1o0mzb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217257/original/file-20180502-153908-1o0mzb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217257/original/file-20180502-153908-1o0mzb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217257/original/file-20180502-153908-1o0mzb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Former owner Richard Desmond.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>The change of ownership at the Express has given one of Britain’s most famous names a long overdue shift in direction. I joined as a reporter in 2002, eager to swap regional dailies for the experience of London on a national title, steeped in Fleet Street history from days when it was the world’s biggest selling newspaper. But what I should have realised was that the Express, already on the wane from its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/mar/18/mondaymediasection.interviews">post-war glory</a> as Lord Beaverbrook’s mid-market behemoth, never stood a chance once it had been bought in 2000 by UKIP-supporting porn publisher Richard Desmond.</p>
<p>Despite the best intentions, energies and experience of his staff, the billionaire tycoon did not understand or value journalism, merely milking what advertising and circulation revenue remained from its historic base. Relentless job and cost-cutting left it trailing way behind the Daily Mail alongside a bizarre Desmond-led obsession with front pages – whether they merited a story or not (and it was very often not) – that focused on the same themes year-on-year, including weather, Princess Diana and immigration.</p>
<p>As a news reporter, firstly in London and later in Manchester, there was never pressure from the news desk to do anything than cover an assignment to the best of my ability. But that was easier as a generalist who was sent out (before my departure in 2008) on “hard” fact-based news stories including the Soham murders and Morecambe Bay drowning disaster.</p>
<p>In terms of politics and story selection, Desmond – who I vividly remember regularly chomping on fat cigars over early page proofs in the Express’s non-smoking Ludgate House HQ – was obviously king. The paper’s lurch further and further to the right was confirmed by its backing for then UKIP leader Nigel Farage, and the constant headlines that were so publicly condemned by Jones – previously the editor of the Labour-supporting Sunday Mirror and the Sunday People.</p>
<h2>New broom</h2>
<p>Jones’ appointment two months ago has already brought change as the Express looks to find a new way and identity. The <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomphillips/2013-according-to-the-daily-express-front-page">oft-ridiculed</a> themed front pages have gone, recently exchanged, for example, with a campaigning piece on care for the elderly.</p>
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<p>Media commentator and former Times journalist Liz Gerard noted recently that although the word “migrant” had appeared in 23 news stories under Jones’s watch, most references were neutral and some positive. Gerard’s acknowledgement carries some weight as her <a href="http://www.sub-scribe.co.uk/2016/09/the-press-and-immigration-reporting.html">in-depth monitoring</a> of newspaper immigration stories from the May 2010 general election concluded that the old Express regime was clearly the worst for negative coverage.</p>
<p>Splash headlines included “Migrants Rob Young Britons of Jobs”, “Migrants Grab 12,000 Jobs a Month” and “Migrant Workers Flooding Britain”.</p>
<p>Contrast this with new regime coverage including <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/953546/Sajid-Javid-home-secretary-amber-rudd-theresa-may-windrush-scandal-fallout">a comment piece</a> supporting the “impressive” new home secretary, Sajid Javid, trumpeting the “first member of an ethnic minority to hold a great office of state”. On the Windrush migrant scandal, the leader writer added: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>He must act decisively to sort out this mess which has ruined the lives of many decent, law-abiding British citizens who came to this country in the hope of a fair and better life, who uphold British values and have been terribly badly treated.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Can the Express – now with a seeming blank canvas and a new boss who is clear to break with the paper’s less than impressive recent performance – reach back to its pioneering past, as befitting the Crusader masthead, to produce stories and web content for a new audience?</p>
<p>I hope so. But the odds are not favourable. The <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/288227/circulation-trend-of-the-daily-express-newspaper-uk/">length and depth of decline</a> in its (ageing) readership is huge. And perhaps, more crucially, so is its longstanding lack of investment in a digital audience compared to its heavyweight rivals.</p>
<p>Desmond’s cigar may have been extinguished but much will depend on whether Jones and Trinity Mirror can find the money and formula to find a new generation of readers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95881/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Broster does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Since it was acquired by Trinity Mirror the newspaper has new editor and a completely different attitude towards immigration.Paul Broster, Director of Journalism, Politics and Contemporary History, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/916062018-02-10T08:41:48Z2018-02-10T08:41:48ZWhy the Mirror buy up of the Express is yet another sign of a newspaper industry in peril<p>The Daily Express and the Daily Mirror are almost the same age. Among the UK’s first national, daily, popular newspapers, they both came into being as a direct response to the success of the Daily Mail. The Express was launched as a direct competitor in 1900, while the Mirror was set up as a “woman’s paper” by the Mail’s proprietor Alfred Harmsworth. </p>
<p>By the middle of the 20th century, they were Britain’s most successful ever newspapers. Selling millions of copies, they were considered integral parts of British culture, informing and entertaining huge numbers of lower-middle and working-class readers. Together they marked the commercial and cultural high point of the “tabloid century”, when popular newspapers were a powerful force in British life.</p>
<p>Now, with the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/feb/09/trinity-mirror-buys-express-star-127m-deal-richard-desmond-ok">Mirror Group confirming</a> its purchase of the Express (along with the other parts of Richard Desmond’s publishing portfolio) the two papers have considerably different reputations. </p>
<p>The Mirror, for example, is still suffering from the fall-out of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8634176/Phone-hacking-timeline-of-a-scandal.html">the phone-hacking scandal</a>. Editors and executives <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/hugh-grant-wins-trinity-mirror-hacking-case-names-piers-morgan-guilty-editor/">continue to be accused</a> of allowing journalistic behaviour that repeatedly crossed legal and moral boundaries. </p>
<p>The Express, meanwhile, is now commonly associated with hard-line editorial stances against immigration and the recent refugee crises in Europe and North Africa. It has been accused (including by the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/apr/24/katie-hopkins-cockroach-migrants-denounced-united-nations-human-rights-commissioner">UN’s Human Rights High Commissioner</a>) of publishing hate speech. </p>
<p>Even united under the same publisher, it is extremely unlikely that either of these papers will reclaim the popularity, power and respect they once enjoyed.</p>
<p>This consolidation of ownership of two of the country’s most-read print newspapers has raised questions of editorial influence. Will the Mirror publisher try to move the staunchly right-wing Express leftwards? Such fears (flatly <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42991304">denied by Trinity Mirror’s CEO</a>) are indicative of wider attitudes towards the tabloid media which assume their content is dictated entirely from the top. </p>
<p>But while newspaper owners such as Rupert Murdoch and editors such as Paul Dacre direct the content of their newspapers, they are also conscious of the necessity of a strong relationship with their readers. Any move to change the Express’s politics would be to ignore the interests (and loyalty) of the hundreds of thousands of people who continue to buy and read them. It is unlikely that this merger will lead to a radical change in the politics of the British press.</p>
<p>What is more likely – and more disheartening – is a <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/02/09/daily-mirror-owner-strikes-200m-deal-buy-daily-express-daily/">reduction in the number</a> of journalists. While key writers – particularly distinct political commentators – are likely to be kept at both papers, reporting teams will probably merge – and staff will be cut. </p>
<h2>Deadline approaches…</h2>
<p>While Trinity Mirror’s push for cutting costs is understandable in a press environment of declining advertising revenue and print circulations, to see staff cuts across two of the country’s biggest and most historic titles would be a disappointment. </p>
<p>As students continue to study journalism, the sight of further job restrictions on the horizon – particularly from two big name publications – will no doubt dent morale.</p>
<p>Once they were two of the earliest pioneers of tabloid journalism, and found huge success in speaking to large audiences better than any generation of British newspaper before it. At their peaks, they were the dominant forces in the business, with millions of readers enjoying their papers every single day. </p>
<p>Today these two former titans feel more like weary former foes reunited at the end of a long fight. They have joined forces to try and prolong their existence in a media landscape far flung from their past glories. And it may well help them to continue for longer than either would alone. </p>
<p>The fact remains, however, that this merger was unthinkable until only very recently. Just as their birth marked the beginning of print tabloid dominance, their union, propping each other up for the sake of survival, may well be seen in future as a marker of the tabloid newspaper’s demise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91606/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Shoop-Worrall has received funding from the Royal Historical Society and the Institute of Historical Research. </span></em></p>The two papers were once titans of publishing. But their future looks less rosy.Christopher Shoop-Worrall, PhD Researcher in Journalism History, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.