Detailed Record
Star, The
no 1, 17 Jan 1888 - no 8446, 03 May 1915
then: Star, The. no 8526, 04 Aug 1915 - no 22509, 17 Oct 1960
then: Star and Echo, The. no 8847, 04 May 1915 - no 8525, 03 Aug 1915
then: Star and Echo, The. no 8847, 04 May 1915 - no 8525, 03 Aug 1915
London,Middlesex
Editor:
Walter J. Evans (sub editor)
Henry William Massingham (1890)
T. P. O'Connor (1887 - 1890)
Ernest Parke (1891 - 1912)
Wilson Pope (1920 - 1930)
Henry William Massingham (1890)
T. P. O'Connor (1887 - 1890)
Ernest Parke (1891 - 1912)
Wilson Pope (1920 - 1930)
Proprietor:
Wilfred Scawen Blunt (1888 - ?)
John Brunner
George Cadbury (1909 -)
J.J. Colman
Cook (1888 -)
Daily News Ltd
Alfred Charles William Harmsworth (Lord Northcliffe)
Isaac Holden
Thomas Lough (1888 -)
T.P. O'Connor (founder 1888)
Ernest Parke
John Brunner
George Cadbury (1909 -)
J.J. Colman
Cook (1888 -)
Daily News Ltd
Alfred Charles William Harmsworth (Lord Northcliffe)
Isaac Holden
Thomas Lough (1888 -)
T.P. O'Connor (founder 1888)
Ernest Parke
Publisher:
Daily News Ltd
Level Kent
W. [William] O'Malley (1891)
Level Kent
W. [William] O'Malley (1891)
Printer:
Daily News Ltd
Level Kent
Level Kent
Contributors:
Ernest Bax Belfort
R.A. Bennett
Ursula Bloom
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Richmal Crompton
Walter De La Mare
Robert Donald
James Douglas
Arthur Conan Doyle
Walter J. Evans
A.G. Gardiner
Charlie Hands
W.T. Heward
Gordon Hewart (Lord)
Richard Le Gallienne
Thomas Marlow
Ernest Parke
Elizabeth Robins Pennell (pseudo "A.U.")
Joseph Pennell
George Bernard Shaw (pseudonym "Corno di Bassetto")
Clement K. Shorter (1888)
Lincoln Springfield
Arthur Symons
F.W. Thomas
E. Raymond Thompson
Katharine Tynan
Arthur Bingham Walkley (1888 - 1900 pseud. "Spectator")
Sidney Webb
Israel Zangwill (literary columnist c.1891)
Emile Zola
R.A. Bennett
Ursula Bloom
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Richmal Crompton
Walter De La Mare
Robert Donald
James Douglas
Arthur Conan Doyle
Walter J. Evans
A.G. Gardiner
Charlie Hands
W.T. Heward
Gordon Hewart (Lord)
Richard Le Gallienne
Thomas Marlow
Ernest Parke
Elizabeth Robins Pennell (pseudo "A.U.")
Joseph Pennell
George Bernard Shaw (pseudonym "Corno di Bassetto")
Clement K. Shorter (1888)
Lincoln Springfield
Arthur Symons
F.W. Thomas
E. Raymond Thompson
Katharine Tynan
Arthur Bingham Walkley (1888 - 1900 pseud. "Spectator")
Sidney Webb
Israel Zangwill (literary columnist c.1891)
Emile Zola
Names:
Annie Besant
Wilfrid Blunt
Colman
Charles E. Hands
George Sutton (Sir)
Wilfrid Blunt
Colman
Charles E. Hands
George Sutton (Sir)
Size:
50cm, 4pp
Price:
½d (1891); 6d
Circulation:
15,000 (1860); 125,000-142,600 (1888); 280, 000 (1890); 300,000 (1893)
Frequency:
daily (pm)
Illustration:
engravings
Departments:
advertisements, daily news, parliamentary proceedings, b/m/d, important discovery, court of King's bench, London markets, nautical intelligence, book reviews, crime reports, interviews, letters to the editor, murder and execution coverage, musical criticism, literature, drama, human interest stories, political cartoons, racing tips, gossip, football report, London politics and the press, London government reform, Jack the Ripper
Orientation:
liberal; Fabian; socialist (18?? - 1891); radical (1891 -); working class; pro-Irish Home Rule
Merges:
incorporated with the Evening News (q.v.) (1960?)
Sources:
DNB xxvii, 566-578, 643-644, 879-80.; Griffiths.; Layton, Handy Newspaper List.; Mitchell's Newspaper Press Directory.; Uffelman, 1992.; Harrison, Warwick Guide to Labour.; Williams, Contentious Crown: 3.; Willing, James. Willing's Press Guide. vol 18. London: Willing, 1891. pp.109, 375
Histories:
Boyce, Newspaper History from the Seventeenth Century.; Clarke, "Something for the 'Silly Season'." VPR, 48:1, pp. 121-137.; Cranfield, The Press and Society.; Curtis, Jack the Ripper.; Engel, Tickle the Public.; Fyfe, Hamilton. Sixty Years of Fleet Street. London: W.H. Allen & Co., Ltd., 1949.; Goodbody, J. "The Star: its role of the rise of popular newspapers, 1888-1914." JNPH 1:2 (1985): 20-9.; Havinghurst, A.F. Radical Journalist: H.W. Massingham 1860-1924. Cambridge, 1974.; Herd, March of Journalism.; Jones, Kennedy. Fleet Street & Downing Street. London: Hutchinson And Co.,1920.; Koss, Rise and Fall of the Political Press.; Lake, Guide for Collectors.; Lawrence D.H. ed. Shaw's Music: the Complete Musical Criticism in three Volumes. New York, 1981.; Lee, Origins of Popular Press.; Legg and Nesta, "O'Connor, Thomas Power." DNCJ, p.467.; MacLeod, Vocabularies of Liberalism.; Marley, Michael Davitt, p.103.; Maume, "Moran and The Leader".; Mccoy, "Edmund Yates and the Voice of Society Journalism".; Morse Jones, "Elizabeth Robins Pennell as a New as a New Art Critic".; Satre, L.J. "After the match girls' strike: Bryant and May in the 1890's." VS 26: (1982): 7-31.; Sheehy, "O'Connor and The Star".; Simms, Richard. "Index to the Fiction Published in The Star. thestarfictionindex.atwebpages.com/index.htm.; "Tyson, Brian. ed. Bernard Shaw’s Book Reviews:1884-1950. vol 2. University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996.; Williams, Francis. Dangerous Estate: The Anatomy of Newspapers. London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1957; King, Andrew and John Plunkett. Victorian Print Media: a Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005: 361.; Stokes and Turner, "Oscar Wilde New Journalist".; Sweet, Matthew. Inventing the Victorians. London: Faber and Faber, 2002.; "The Star (London)." wikipedia.org.; Wiener, "British and American Newspaper Journalism" p.271.
Comments:
"On January 17, 1888, when T.P. O'Connor (1848-1929), a journalist, founded the Star, a halfpenny evening paper -- one hundred years after the first London evening, also called the Star, made its appearance. The new journal, launched with a capital of £48,000, was journalistically as well as politically Radical" (Herd, Harold; p.233). In the second number, the Star claimed that it had broken the world record by selling 142,600 copies of the first number. O'Connor believed "in the power of the personal note, which he was to exploit agreeably."
This was founded by O'Connor to "promote his vision of an Irish-Radical reform alliance, the heart of which was home rule for Ireland and social reform in England...[and it] brought the Parnellites and Liberals together" (Sheehy 78).
"No evening paper of the times had a more brilliant staff than the Star in its early days." There were Donald, Marlowe, Evans, Sutton, Walkley, Springfield, Douglas, Hands, and Shorter. There was also Hewart (leader-writer), Shaw (music critic) and Le Gallienne (book reviewer) (Herd, Harold; p.233). Gardiner submitted essays under the signature of "Alpha of the Plough" (Herd, Harold; p.258).
"The Star is the only Liberal ½d evening paper in London. Finance is a strong feature" (Mitchell's, 1900). " 'We believe that the reader of the daily journal longs for other than mere politics; and we shall present him with plenty of entirely unpolitical literature--sometimes humourous, sometimes pathetic; anecdotal, statistical, the craze for fashions and the arts of housekeeping and now and then, a short, dramatic and picturesque tale. In our reporting columns we shall do away with the hackneyed style of obsolete journalism; and the men and women that figure in the forum or the pulpit or the law court shall be presented as they are--living, breathing, in blushes or in tears--and not merely by the dead words that they utter. Our ideal is to leave no event unrecorded; to be earliest in the field with every item of news; to be thorough and unmistakable in our meaning; to be animated, readable and stirring' " (from the first issue, quoted in Engel p.45).
Wiener: "At the outset, the Star gave extensive coverage to one of the leading crime stories of the age-the exploits of the East End assassin known as 'Jack the Ripper'-and this, to a degree, explains its successful breakthrough into mass circulation journalism. It accompanied its reporting of the Ripper's deeds with harrowing American-style headlines ('THE RIPPER SUPRASSES HIMSELF IN FIENDISH MUTILATION'), producing an abundant combination of fear and titillation among its readers" (272).
The paper opposed Florence Maybrick's controversial conviction for murder in 1889 (Knelman p.1889). The paper inaugurated 'the new journalism' which was characterized by 'the human touch.' O'Connor was bought out three years after starting the paper in 1890 (DNB xxvii, p.643-644).
"The first modern evening paper," the Star claimed that "a policy will be esteemed by us good or bad as it influences for good or evil the lot of the masses . . . the effect of every policy must first be regarded from the standpoint of the workers of the nation, and of the poorest and most helpless among them" (Cranfield, p.215). "We shall have daily but one article of any length . . . The other items of the day will be dealt with in notes terse, pointed and plain-spoken. We believe that the reader of the daily journals longs for other reading than mere politics, and we shall present him with plenty of entirely unpolitical literature" (Cranfield, p.216). The Star became at once a London workers' paper (Fyfe, Hamilton; p.45). Clement Shorter wrote literary gossip (Fyfe, Hamilton; p.45).
"...[E]stablished a reputation for being the most advanced and best written evening paper in London" (Jones, Kennedy).
"States that since the rich and privileged need no advocate, it will judge policies 'from the standpoint of the workers of the nation, and of the poorest and most helpless among them,' and will be for their elevation. Vilified by papers like Commonweal and Freedom for its truckling to the Liberals. Claims that 'it is not for or against socialism, but that it takes individual policies on their own merits'. Support for moderate Trade Unionism." (Harrison)
The paper profited on reporting the Jack the Ripper murders in 1888: "By 1888 London had thirteen morning and nine evening national dailies, including the new ha'penny upstart the Star. In wake of [the second victim of Jack the Ripper], Annie Chapman's murder, the Star's circulation soared to 261,000 copies a day, then dipped down to 190,000 in mid-September, and rose again to 217,000 during the first week of October. Rather like a crude barometer of public interest in the Ripper murders, this paper reached a new peak of 300,000 just after Mary Kelly's death [on November 9, 1888]" (Curtis, 2001:59).
"Arguably the first daily paper to practise New Journalism" (King).
This was "the first daily or evening paper to gain a large working-class readership" (Sheehy 83).
O'Connor justfied the inclusion of gossip in his paper because the information conveyed was mostly "dinner table" conversation (Mccoy 175).
"In 1888, following Stead's example at the Pall Mall Gazette, the Irish nationalist politician and former Telegraph journalist Thomas Power O'Connor launched the Star, a paper aimed at the new readers created by the 1870 Education Act. 'We live in an age of hurry and multitudinous newspapers...[they are] picked up at a railway station, hurried over in a railway carriage, dropped incontinently when read.' This mode of consumption, he argued, had to be reflected in the stories on its pages"(Sweet, p.68).
O'Connor viewed The Star as "an opportunity to galvanize support for the alliance and also to promote home rule. His journalistic role was all the more vital because the considerable hold over much of the London press which the Liberals had enjoyed....was seriously weakened by the Party's defeat in the 1886 general election" (Marley 103).
Founded "as a 'Radical evening organ for the metropolis.' It soon became known for its sensational crime reportage as well its stirring editorials in support of Home Rule and the reform of Scotland Yard" (Clarke 121).
The Star was the "best known of late nineteenth-century British evening newspapers because [O'Connor]...was one of the foremost pioneers of the New journalism" (Wiener 271).
This was founded by O'Connor to "promote his vision of an Irish-Radical reform alliance, the heart of which was home rule for Ireland and social reform in England...[and it] brought the Parnellites and Liberals together" (Sheehy 78).
"No evening paper of the times had a more brilliant staff than the Star in its early days." There were Donald, Marlowe, Evans, Sutton, Walkley, Springfield, Douglas, Hands, and Shorter. There was also Hewart (leader-writer), Shaw (music critic) and Le Gallienne (book reviewer) (Herd, Harold; p.233). Gardiner submitted essays under the signature of "Alpha of the Plough" (Herd, Harold; p.258).
"The Star is the only Liberal ½d evening paper in London. Finance is a strong feature" (Mitchell's, 1900). " 'We believe that the reader of the daily journal longs for other than mere politics; and we shall present him with plenty of entirely unpolitical literature--sometimes humourous, sometimes pathetic; anecdotal, statistical, the craze for fashions and the arts of housekeeping and now and then, a short, dramatic and picturesque tale. In our reporting columns we shall do away with the hackneyed style of obsolete journalism; and the men and women that figure in the forum or the pulpit or the law court shall be presented as they are--living, breathing, in blushes or in tears--and not merely by the dead words that they utter. Our ideal is to leave no event unrecorded; to be earliest in the field with every item of news; to be thorough and unmistakable in our meaning; to be animated, readable and stirring' " (from the first issue, quoted in Engel p.45).
Wiener: "At the outset, the Star gave extensive coverage to one of the leading crime stories of the age-the exploits of the East End assassin known as 'Jack the Ripper'-and this, to a degree, explains its successful breakthrough into mass circulation journalism. It accompanied its reporting of the Ripper's deeds with harrowing American-style headlines ('THE RIPPER SUPRASSES HIMSELF IN FIENDISH MUTILATION'), producing an abundant combination of fear and titillation among its readers" (272).
The paper opposed Florence Maybrick's controversial conviction for murder in 1889 (Knelman p.1889). The paper inaugurated 'the new journalism' which was characterized by 'the human touch.' O'Connor was bought out three years after starting the paper in 1890 (DNB xxvii, p.643-644).
"The first modern evening paper," the Star claimed that "a policy will be esteemed by us good or bad as it influences for good or evil the lot of the masses . . . the effect of every policy must first be regarded from the standpoint of the workers of the nation, and of the poorest and most helpless among them" (Cranfield, p.215). "We shall have daily but one article of any length . . . The other items of the day will be dealt with in notes terse, pointed and plain-spoken. We believe that the reader of the daily journals longs for other reading than mere politics, and we shall present him with plenty of entirely unpolitical literature" (Cranfield, p.216). The Star became at once a London workers' paper (Fyfe, Hamilton; p.45). Clement Shorter wrote literary gossip (Fyfe, Hamilton; p.45).
"...[E]stablished a reputation for being the most advanced and best written evening paper in London" (Jones, Kennedy).
"States that since the rich and privileged need no advocate, it will judge policies 'from the standpoint of the workers of the nation, and of the poorest and most helpless among them,' and will be for their elevation. Vilified by papers like Commonweal and Freedom for its truckling to the Liberals. Claims that 'it is not for or against socialism, but that it takes individual policies on their own merits'. Support for moderate Trade Unionism." (Harrison)
The paper profited on reporting the Jack the Ripper murders in 1888: "By 1888 London had thirteen morning and nine evening national dailies, including the new ha'penny upstart the Star. In wake of [the second victim of Jack the Ripper], Annie Chapman's murder, the Star's circulation soared to 261,000 copies a day, then dipped down to 190,000 in mid-September, and rose again to 217,000 during the first week of October. Rather like a crude barometer of public interest in the Ripper murders, this paper reached a new peak of 300,000 just after Mary Kelly's death [on November 9, 1888]" (Curtis, 2001:59).
"Arguably the first daily paper to practise New Journalism" (King).
This was "the first daily or evening paper to gain a large working-class readership" (Sheehy 83).
O'Connor justfied the inclusion of gossip in his paper because the information conveyed was mostly "dinner table" conversation (Mccoy 175).
"In 1888, following Stead's example at the Pall Mall Gazette, the Irish nationalist politician and former Telegraph journalist Thomas Power O'Connor launched the Star, a paper aimed at the new readers created by the 1870 Education Act. 'We live in an age of hurry and multitudinous newspapers...[they are] picked up at a railway station, hurried over in a railway carriage, dropped incontinently when read.' This mode of consumption, he argued, had to be reflected in the stories on its pages"(Sweet, p.68).
O'Connor viewed The Star as "an opportunity to galvanize support for the alliance and also to promote home rule. His journalistic role was all the more vital because the considerable hold over much of the London press which the Liberals had enjoyed....was seriously weakened by the Party's defeat in the 1886 general election" (Marley 103).
Founded "as a 'Radical evening organ for the metropolis.' It soon became known for its sensational crime reportage as well its stirring editorials in support of Home Rule and the reform of Scotland Yard" (Clarke 121).
The Star was the "best known of late nineteenth-century British evening newspapers because [O'Connor]...was one of the foremost pioneers of the New journalism" (Wiener 271).
Location:
partial runs: CA/U-1 A nos 6020-8238 (10 May 1808-31 Aug 1914), LO/N38 A nos 1-22509 (17 Jan 1888-17 Oct 1960); N.America: see Fulton
ad in Willing's Press Guide (1891)