Results: The History of News and Communication *Part Twenty* Tabloid Journalism, it's Early Origins --A type of popular, largely sensationalistic journalism that takes its name from the format of a small newspaper, roughly half the size of an ordinary broadsheet.

A Revolution in News On the 14 of May, 1842, The Illustrated London News burst upon a world that had never seen anything quite like it. The Illustrated London News changed all that forever, from the very first issue. For sixpence, readers acquired sixteen pages covered with thirty-two woodcuts, large and small, accompanying forty-eight columns of news. They saw the fire that had just that week consumed the ancient city of Hamburg, samples of the latest fashions from Paris, young Queen Victoria presiding over a fancy-dress ball at Buckingham Palace, and a myriad of smaller cuts, the whole prefaced with a magnificent view of the London skyline from the Thames, St. Paul's towering above as the barges of the Lord Mayor's procession glide past in the foreground. Both the masthead and the lively mix of topics would remain characteristic of the paper for the rest of the century, and beyond. What ultimately most distinguished the Illustrated London News from its predecessors was not just the first issue, or any other issue, but the steady, week-by-week coverage in which pictures fully partnered with letterpress in conveying information and commentary about current events. Have you seen an edition of The London Illustrated News?

The Illustrated Police News , Law Courts and Weekly Record was founded in 1864. It was the first, and most long-lasting, Saturday penny newspaper that combined two hugely popular Victorian genres: the police newspaper and the illustrated journal. Its founder, George Purkess, was a London publisher who already specialized in the publication of cheap "true stories" of crime, accidents and domestic disaster. Have you ever seen a copy pf The Illustrated Police News many are still for sale on-line?

The News 's front page consisted largely of artists' impressions of these events combined with attention-grabbing headlines, which were reported in full inside the newspaper. The Illustrated London News pioneered the mass publication of engravings from 1842, and spawned many cheaper, popular publications. The Illustrated Police News took advantage of the abolition of the newspaper taxes during 1855-61 to offer an original, entertaining four-page newspaper catering to the popular demand for vivid portrayals of melodrama. Were you aware that the British National Archives is digitizing all of the Newspapers for posterity?

As the News expanded in the 1890s, reaching twelve magazine-sized pages by 1897, the topics covered also diversified. Previously news unrelated to disaster had filled no more than a single column, but new popular items were now published. These included more explicit sexual material, such as 'original saucy songs', jingoistic reports from the Boer War, book reviews, extensive advertising and sporting news, with as much as a whole page devoted to boxing in almost every issue. Would you like to have lived in the 1890s, a time of great advancement and innovation?

The question of who invented the tabloid is usually answered with the story of Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, founder of The Daily Mail in England. As guest editor of the New York World on New Year's Day 1901, Harmsworth seized his chance to experiment and potentially prove a point, distributing a paper half its usual size and constructed of shorter, simpler sentences. In its opening editorial, Harmsworth proclaimed: The World enters today upon the Twentieth or Time-Saving Century. I claim that by my system of condensed or tabloid journalism, hundreds of working hours can be saved each year. Do you read Tabloids, still available at News stands, Supermarkets and Drug Stores?

Two years later, Harmsworth solidified his ambition, launching The Daily Mirror in England, regarded as the world's first modern tabloid newspaper. In its maiden issue, published 2 November 1903, Harmsworth explained that the name was a reflection of its being "a mirror of feminine life", and that its content should be "entertaining without being frivolous, and serious without being dull". Do you think he achieved his goal?