Write the name of some important newspaper of the early 19th century in India
Topic
Level
Middle School
Grade
8
Lesson Steps:

The London Gazette

The London Gazette got its start in 1665 at Oxford. In the autumn or that year Charles II sought shelter from the Great Plague by removing to Oxford. He and his courtiers wanted newspapers to read, yet feared to even touch the London papers for fear that they might be infected. Therefore Leonard Litchfeld, the university printer, was authorized and ordered to bring out a local paper. On Tuesday, November 14, 1665, the first number of "The Oxford Gazette" appeared, and it continued afterwards through eleven weeks on Thursdays and Mondays. These papers were reprinted in London. After the courts return to London the Paper followed and "The London Gazette" made its first appearance, labelled as issue No. 24, on February 5, 1666.

James Perry moved to The London Gazette in 1783. Perry edited the newspaper for eight years but when it was purchased by a group of Tories, he left to publish the Morning Chronicle.

The Tatler/The Spectator

The Tatler was founded by Richard Steele with the first issue published on April 12th, 1709, followed by thrice weekly issues. The Tatler's the main contributor was Issac Bickerstaff, the pseudonym used by Richard Steele and Joseph Addison. The Tatler was immediately succeeded by the Spectator in 1711.

The Tatler criticised the follies and foibles of society by the light of common sense. Its avowed intention was to present accounts of chivalry, pleasure, gossip, provide entertainment, and poetry. The aim of The Spectator, Addison said, was "...to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality." Steele attacked the false notions of honour that kept duelling in fashion.

The kindly and witty essays by these men appealed to the middle class in the coffeehouses rather than to the nobility in their palaces. The Spectator was issued six days a week and occasionally sold 3,000 papers at 1p. each. Part of the reason for the demise of the spectator was a stamp tax of 1p. which doubled the price of the paper.

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Morning Chronicle

In 1769 William Woodfall became the founding editor of the Morning Chronicle and pioneered the idea of Parliamentary reporting. Note-taking was not allowed in the House of Commons, so Mr. Woodfall remembered what was said and wrote it down afterwards. The paper was Whig and reform slanted. In 1779 Woodfall was found guilty of libel and was sentenced to twelve months in Newgate.

In 1789 James Perry formed a partnership with James Gray and purchased the Morning Chronicle from William Woodfall as a result of the purchase of The London Gazette by a group of Tories. The newspaper now became a firm supporter of the Whigs in Parliament. Sales of the Morning Chronicle gradually increased and by 1810 the newspaper had a circulation of 7,000. He survived one prosecution for "seditious libel" but by 1798 he spent 3 months at Newgate for libelling the House of Lords.

The papers popularity and sales gradually increased gaining a circulation of 7,000 by 1810. By 1810 he was printing stories by Britain' best radical journalists. He was again prosecuted for Libeling George III in February of 1810. In 1813 William Hazlitt was employed as the parliamentary reporter for the Morning Chronicle. Hazlitt criticised both Tories and Whigs

This is the paper that Charles Dickens first wrote for as a reporter 1834. The Morning Chronicle conducted the first investigative reporting in history with an 1849 story about the conditions of the labouring classes. The Morning Chronicle ceased publication in 1862.

The Morning Post

The Morning Post was founded in 1772. Daniel Stuart purchased the newspaper in 1795 and by employing writers such as Samuel Coleridge, Robert Southey, William Wordsworth and Charles Lamb, increased its status and its circulation.

Daily Universal Register/ The Times

Despite The Times illustrious reputation, its beginnings were less than auspicious. It was another business attempt by John Waters in 1785. He had been an underwriter at Lloyds and lost severely due to a hurricane in Jamaica. He had enough money left to buy the patent rights to a typesetting process and started an advertising sheet to promote the process. He included minor news items in his sheet. After a couple years of advertising and publishing his sheet, he was still unable to sell his typesetting process but Waters was making money with the paper, then called the Daily Universal Registar.

Part of the money that John Waters expected to make from his publishing enterprise was from an agreement that he would be paid 300 per year to print stories favorable to the government. In 1788 he changed the name to The Times and began to print gossip in an attempt to make the paper more popular. This led to his being fined and put in Newgate for two years over a story that he printed about the Prince of Wales.

In 1803 his son John Walters II became the publisher and began to move the paper away from government control. He and his succeeding editor Thomas Barnes supported political and parliamentary reforms, especially after the Peterloo Massacre. In a debate that took place in the House of Commons on 7th March, 1832, Sir Robert Peel argued that The Times was the "principal and most powerful advocate of Reform" in Britain. By 1834 the paper was respected enough that it is given credit for helping to bring down and force the replacement of the government.

In 1810 Dr. John Stoddart, now the editor of The Times, appointed Thomas Barnes as the newspaper's parliamentary correspondent. In 1817, Dr. John Stoddart retired and Thomas Barnes became the new editor of The Times. When Barnes took over the newspaper it was selling around 7,000 copies a day and was failing to make a profit. John Walter II still held most of the shares in The Times, but by 1819 Barnes had sought and obtained full control over the editorial content of the newspaper.

The Observer

W. S. Bourne borrowed £100 to start a Sunday newspaper, The Observer. The first edition was published on 4th December 1791. Bourne expected a Sunday paper would make him a "rapid fortune". He was wrong and by 1794 the newspaper was Ł1,600 in debt. Bourne tried to sell the newspaper to an anti-government group in London. When this failed his brother paid his debts, and tried to sell the paper to the government. This also failed, but the government did agree to subsidise the newspaper in return for influencing its content.

The Home Office also decided to recruit Dowling, the newspapers first, and primary reporter, as a government spy. In 1815 Lord Sidmouth, the Home Secretary, became worried about the growing demands for parliamentary reform. One group of radicals causing particular concern was the Spencean Philanthropists and Dowling played a large role in the apprehension and trial of those involved in the Cato Street Conspiracy.

In 1814 The Observer was bought by William Innell Clement. As he was also the owner of the Morning Chronicle, Bell's Life in London and the Englishman, Clement was now the most important press magnate in Britain. Clement continued the policy of taking a government subsidy in return for an influence over the political opinions expressed in the newspaper.

The Observer is the oldest, still published, Sunday newspaper.

Bell's Weekly Messenger

Founded in 1796, first issue on May 1st.

The Political Register

On January 1st 1802 William Cobbett published the first issue of his newspaper, The Political Register. At first Cobbett's newspaper supported the Tories but he gradually became more radical. By 1806 Cobbett used the newspaper to campaign for parliamentary reform. William Cobbett was not afraid to criticise the government in The Political Register and in 1809 he attacked the use of German troops to put down a mutiny in Ely. By 1815 the tax on newspapers had reached 4d. a copy. As few people could afford to pay 6d. or 7d. for a newspaper, the tax restricted the circulation of most of these journals to people with fairly high incomes. The following year Cobbett began publishing The Political Register as a pamphlet. Cobbett now sold The Political Register for only 2d. and it soon had a circulation of 40,000.

Cobbett's journal was the main newspaper read by the working class until 1817 when he fled prosecution. The paper continued to be published until 1820 thanks to the efforts of William Benbow. In 1820 Cobbet returned and continued to publish. He was charged three more times before but avoided trial without flight and in 1831 successfully defended himself against the charges.

The Globe

The Globe was launched in 1803. It merged with the Pall Mall Gazzette in 1921.


Answer:

The London Gazette
The Tatler/The Spectator
Morning Chronicle
The Morning Post
Daily Universal Register/ The Times
The Observer
The Political Register
The Globe


Grade: 8
Level: Middle school
Subject: Social studies
Topic: History

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