The Chronicle – an idea that refused to die

Elsewhere, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of newspapers have come and gone, but the Chronicle has carried on and now enjoys the largest readership it has ever had, in print and especially online.

The secret of its success is elusive. But a major factor must be that during a long period in the 19th century and later, it was wholly independent and run like a family – journalists, printers, distributors all in the same boat.

The drawback was that in the final decades of the last century, when every other significant newspaper had adopted direct input from journalists and efficient methods of production, the Chronicle was stuck with hot-metal typesetting, a front page of ads, and limited means of distribution.

Then in 1991 came change, with the introduction of computers in place of Linotype and printing on high-speed presses in Portsmouth. Two years later, ads were dropped from the front page and the Chronicle entered the modern age! It was still independent, but not for long.

Those who got the paper going in the late 18th century had different, but equally challenging problems. In the first three decades, it had no less than eight changes of ownership. Started in 1772 in a very professional way by Southampton printer James Linden, it had a rough-ride until James Robbins, a master printer with strong links to Winchester College, eventually took charge in 1805.

All of these early owners struggled with a harsh tax regime. The raw paper was taxed, advertisements were taxed and stamp duty was levied on every copy of every edition. The charges might have been justified for defence of the realm, but the government also wanted to suppress public knowledge.

In these early years, publishers were called ‘booksellers’. But it didn’t mean they only sold books. In fact, they generally dabbled in a variety of trades, including jobbing printing, stationery, circulating libraries and even patent medicines. James Linden also ran a school.

It was a good time to launch a new paper: the population was rising, more people could read, roads were better and with growing prosperity a ‘consumer society’ was emerging.

Linden also showed his talent as a publisher by choosing a great name, the Hampshire Chronicle, though later owners played with it and its subtitle, Southampton, Winchester and Portsmouth Mercury – mainly to seek new markets.

Like most country papers of the day, it had little or no local news and was filled with copy taken from the London press – it would be more than a hundred years before it started to ‘go local’. Linden obviously wanted to make a profit, but more than that, the purpose of the paper was to advertise booksellers’ wares – his and those of others.

READ MORE: Hampshire Chronicle to mark its 250th anniversary with month-long celebration

Most books were published in London and Linden and others provided a means of ordering them for purchase locally. He boasted in his new Chronicle that he could procure books from the capital ‘at three days notice’ – rather like Amazon!

And he seized opportunities: in November 1776 during the American War of Independence he rushed out a special edition in a smaller format to announce the taking of New York by troops under the command of Sir William Howe. No doubt expecting a large readership, he filled it with advertisements for such items as ‘Dr Robert Walkers’ Jesuit Drops’.

Obviously he was making a success of his new paper, much to the chagrin of a hot-shot publisher cum banker, Benjamin Collins – recognized as a key player in the history of publishing. Writing in his Salisbury Journal, he hurled a stream of invective at the upstart Linden.

Collins had founded the Salisbury paper in 1736 (after a false start seven years earlier) and obviously regarded Winchester and Southampton as his territory. Indeed, to challenge Linden he changed the title of his paper to the Salisbury and Winchester Journal and eventually gained ground in this early ‘press war’ after his competitor went bankrupt.

A key document in the Hampshire Record Office dated June 3, 1778, shows that at this time Collins and others wanted to take a major share in the Chronicle with printer John Wilkes of Winchester, who was to be its next publisher. However, the document has crucial blanks and is not signed.

Collins was clearly throwing his weight around, and even if the proposed deal was ever agreed, it went sour, as witnessed by court records for Wilkes vs Collins in the National Archives. Whatever the proceedings, Wilkes did take on the Chronicle, lauding the benefits of being in Winchester ‘closer to the center [sic] of the county’.

In the early 1780s, he also tried to play the same game as Collins, renaming the paper The Salisbury and Winchester Journal and the Hampshire and Wiltshire Chronicle. But it did not last and by the end of 1783 the paper was in the hands of T. Blagden of Winchester, who was trying the geographically opposite ruse with The Hampshire Chronicle and Portsmouth and Chichester Journal! Wilkes eventually regained ownership and ran with the same title in 1791, by which time he was living in the shadow of St Paul’s London, in Ave Maria Lane.

Unravelling the complex story of this period and the hitherto unknown battle between the Chronicle and the Salisbury Journal, touches on the work of Dr Christine Ferdinand of Magdalen College, Oxford, author of Benjamin Collins and the Provincial Newspaper Trade in the Eighteenth Century (full story in a future column). Ironically, both titles are now owned by the same company, Newsquest!

As for Linden, despite ‘promises’ to the contrary he was not cowed by mere bankruptcy and soon set up a rival Hampshire Chronicle, which in its first edition spoke of ‘a variety of difficulties’ which had caused the paper to be ‘bought out of his possession by the proprietor of the Salisbury Journal’.

In fact, the rival paper did rather well, albeit with several owners in Southampton and then Portsmouth, until it folded after seven years. The problem was clearly one of distribution. The Winchester paper had built up a much larger number of sales outlets than Linden’s copycat title.

Even after Wilkes, free from legal worries, got the paper back in 1791 there followed two further owners before in 1805 it passed into the safe ownership of James Robbins. He had distinguished himself as the publisher in 1798 of John Milner’s two-volume Survey of the Antiquities of Winchester and also printed official documents for the county, on subjects such as the Reform of the Corn Laws.

Initially in the High Street, Winchester, the printing shop was soon moved to 11-12, College Street, behind the current site of the bookshop P & G Wells.

Robbins’ good fortune was to buy the Chronicle in the same year as the Battle of Trafalgar. In the edition of November 11, 1805, he recorded the actions of ‘gallant tars led by brave Nelson’, and local celebrations. ‘Loyal Winchester volunteers assembled at their parade, and marched to their drill ground, where they fired three volleys. …Several hogsheads of strong beer were given to the populace.’

In 1812 the Chronicle splashed another huge story, when PM Perceval Spencer was shot in the House of Commons by a Liverpool ship-broker, who had travelled on government business in Russia, but not been remunerated. The report filled three columns of the May 18 edition, which also covered the knee-jerk trial. And the next edition was packed with minute details of the assassin’s execution.

Once in the safe hands of Robbins, the Chronicle entered a period of nearly 200 years when it was owned by relatives of his, their descendants and other close associates. This was the golden era of the Jacob & Johnson partnership. More next week.

For more on Hampshire, visit www.hampshirearchivestrust.co.uk and www.hantsfieldclub.org.uk.

barryshurlock@gmail.com.