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Publishers

A publisher prints and disseminates literature or information in books, periodicals, and newspapers. With the advent of the Internet, publishing expanded online as the early twenty-first century introduced e-books and online newspapers.

The publisher represents the owner and sometimes is the owner. He or she controls all stages of producing a newspaper or magazine from development to distribution including acquisition, graphic design, copyediting, production, selling advertising, marketing, and circulation. Virtually every aspect of any publication is the responsibility of the publisher who has final say on important business (and sometimes editorial) decisions.

In the early years of newspaper publishing, one person often filled the roles of publisher, editor, and reporter. The separate role of a publisher as the controller of the business began to emerge in large cities during the late eighteenth century, but became important only in the nineteenth century as a handful of individuals became well known as press “barons” who dominated all aspects of their publications. By the late twentieth century, however, publishers played a more behind-the-scenes role at most newspapers and magazines, and few were in the public eye. They remained powerful—central—to the publishing process however, for they controlled purse strings and determined how revenues would be spent. Publishers usually appoint editors, for example, thus setting the standard for publication.

Notable Publishers

The following American and British publishers, listed in alphabetical order, all played highly influential roles in the nineteenth- or twentieth-century print journalism industry.

Sir William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (1879–1964)

Born in Canada, Aitken moved to England as a wealthy stockbroker and was elected to the House of Commons in 1910. In December 1916 Aitken purchased a majority interest in the London Daily Express. He later began the London Sunday Express, acquired the London Evening Standard and the Glasgow Evening Citizen. He accepted a peerage as Baron Beaverbrook in 1917. The next year Aitken served as chancellor of Lancaster and minister of information in the cabinet. He enjoyed being active behind the scenes in Tory politics. Aitken became Winston Churchill's war cabinet minister of aircraft production in 1940, then minister of supply in 1941. The following year he became British lend-lease administrator in the United States. Throughout his career Aiken served interchangeably as financier, politician, and newspaper proprietor. His outspoken personality and open support for British imperial gains led Evelyn Waugh to sketch Aitken into his novel, Scoop (1938).

James Gorden Bennet (1795–1872)

Bennet emigrated from Scotland in 1819 and spent his early years in New York founding a school, lecturing on political economy, and writing for or editing several newspapers. On May 6, 1835, Bennet published the first edition of The New York Herald, a four-page penny paper. The paper soon became a huge success, due in part to Bennet's focus on the gathering of interesting news. Some of the paper's pioneering contributions include: the first Wall Street financial article to appear in an American newspaper (1835); a colorful account of the great New York fire of December 1835 which was accompanied by an illustrated map of the burned area; leading newspaper use of illustration (the illustrated map that accompanied the 1835 article about the New York fire was the first time an American paper had used illustration); establishment of the first European correspondents in 1838; the first society department in 1840; and a report obtained fully by telegraph in 1846.

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