There are many similarities between Victorian newspapers and today’s newspapers. A flick through a modern newspaper reveals national news, international news, letters pages, features, recipes, book reviews, beauty products, fashion commentary, travel articles, crosswords – the list goes on! A Victorian newspaper wasn’t much different, so let’s start at the beginning.
In 1846, when Charles Dickens became editor of the Daily News in London, there were a total of 355 newspapers running in England. By the time Charles Dickens died in 1870, there were nearly 1000 up and running newspapers. This sharp rise in the founding of newspapers was due to the abolition of stamp duty, a tax paid by all newspapers to the government. So the cover price went down, and the distribution went up. News was now big business.
Local Newspapers
All Victorian newspapers were known as local newspapers. They covered only an area or district of a town or a city. So London had lots of separate, local newspapers each covering an area of London, not the whole. This was what people wanted because most people, especially the working class, did not travel far from home and so news of other cities was of no consequence to them. People wanted to know what was happening in their area, where they knew the road names and the people involved. This was news which had a direct impact on their lives. Most newspapers carried some international news, especially about trade and war, as these events had an impact on National wellbeing. The Times was the nearest thing to a National paper but even then, it did not carry a lot of National news. The Guardian, which today is classed as a National paper, originally started as a local Manchester paper.
As well as local news, including crime and murder, newspapers covered government activities in The House of Commons, history articles, letters from prominent people, poetry, and fiction. In fact, newspapers were the starting point for many Victorian authors including The Brontes, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskill, George Elliot, and of course, Charles Dickens. They also ran many adverts as these brought in much needed money. Common adverts included soap, medicine, corsets, and food items.
Other Newspapers
Many subject specific publications sold on a weekly or monthly basis. The medical journal, the Lancet, was a newspaper for doctors and is still going today. Alliance News was a newspaper for members of The Temperance (anti-alcohol) movement, and Athletic News, based in Manchester, wriote about football. There was also an interesting newspaper called The Illustrated Police News which reported on general scandals but specialised in London court cases and murders. It was printed on a Saturday and cost 1 penny.
Weekly news miscellanies became popular. They printed a round-up of the news both at home and abroad, features for the family and serial fiction. These were popular with the working class.
Who read the newspapers?
It was usual practice in the Victorian era for those who were literate to read aloud the articles and news to a group of interested listeners who couldn’t read so well. Literacy levels were not brilliant. We know this because the only historically accurate measurement of literacy levels of everyone from the Victorian era is in the church marriage records. All couples who married, and it could only be in a church because registry offices didn’t exist then, had to sign the marriage register. In the 1850s, only 69% of men and 55% of women could sign their names. Everyone else signed with an X. By 1900, 97% of both men and women could sign their name.
Children read newspapers. It helped them to retain their reading skills after they had left school. Many children read the newspaper to their parents, which is no different to my children showing me how to use social media! Many newspapers started writing a column or two aimed at children, and they were encouraged to write letters to the newspaper and send in pictures they had drawn too.
Even semi-literate people could stumble their way through the headlines and get the gist of what was being reported. But it was common for the illiterate and semi-literate to listen to others reading aloud. People were good at listening, just like in Shakespeare’s time when people went to “hear” a play. Nowadays, we have news read to us by news readers on the TV and radio.
Where were newspapers read?
Reading the news aloud took place in the home, in coffee shops, in ale houses and on the streets. It was common for the husband to read the news aloud to his wife whilst she finished off chores or did some sewing. It was equally common for men to stop off in pubs on the way home to have a pint and read the papers for free. Pubs and coffee houses saw newspapers as an investment. They attracted customers who could sit in the warmth and light with their friends and have a conversation about what was happening in the world. These were free conversations with like-minded individuals, and these opportunities were cherished by everyone.
Public libraries also stocked the latest newspapers in their reading rooms. Wealthier men read the papers at their local Gentlemen’s Club, in peace and quiet, with a nice pipe and a drink of whisky. Reading in the street was a normal, communal activity, with groups of people gathering under streetlamps to look at the latest news.
Once the Victorian newspaper had been read, it was discarded. With newspapers being printed every day, yesterday’s news was, well – yesterday’s news.
Many people cut out their favourite or most relevant stories and pasted them into scrap books, leaving behind an important historical record. All newspaper offices bound up past copies of newspapers into books for posterity.
However, the majority of old newspapers were used where paper was needed – mainly as toilet paper. Once the newspaper had been read, it was neatly torn into squares, threaded onto some string, and hung on a hook in the privy.
For more information on privies, please visit my recent post Privies – How we went to toilet in Victorian England.
