1,000,000 Telegraphs a Day

From the charwomen to the foreign correspondents, everybody who works for the London Daily Telegraph got a jubilant mimeographed note from the boss, and an extra week's pay. Viscount Camrose had reason to celebrate: the sickly (circ. 80,000) daily he had bought into in 1928 had reached a healthy 1,001,047. A front-page box proclaimed: "This is the first time in the newspaper history of the world that any quality newspaper has achieved a million sale."*

If the war had not choked off newsprint, Lord Camrose might have got there four years ago. He sacrificed circulation to stay at six pages during the war (and also to make more money on his columns of classified ads, said Fleet Streeters). His Telegraph won success by copybook rules: saving its money and adopting honesty as the best news policy. Readers generally find the Telegraph's stodgy Tory editorials almost unreadable, but, more important, they also get great grey blobs of news unslanted and in plentiful supply. The Telegraph is an outstanding example of responsible journalism in an era of crisis and confusion. Its rise was not as spectacular as the postwar growth of one rival, the gaudy tabloid Daily Mirror, which climbed from 2,400,000 to 3,565,000 in eight months. But it was one that Fleet Streeters applauded more warmly.

* Leading U.S. quality papers by Camrose standards: the New York Times (circ. 555,932 daily, 1,091,183 Sunday); the New York Herald Tribune (circ. 352,154 daily, 729,363 Sunday).

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