Penny Telegraph
Sir: Stephen Glover (Media studies, 25 May) castigated the Times propaganda for claiming that paper had 'almost doubled its circulation in three years' without making any reference to the fact that the paper had cut its cover price to below that of any of the competition. He added that the Daily Telegraph achieved similar results in the 1930s 'when selling at a discount to its main competitors'.
The Daily Telegraph, just three years into the ownership of my father, the first Lord Camrose, gave no such discount. The Tele- graph came down from 2d to id, the price of the `populars' — the Mail, Express, News Chronicle and Herald — and of the 'quality' Morning Post. Only the Times remained at 2d. In the event, the Times suffered hardly at all, nor was there much effect on the populars, who were all indulging in an orgy of 'free gifts'. Lord Camrose claimed that, having spent three years 'getting the paper right', he was 'to some extent creating a new public: a paper with serious subjects, treating politics without "stunts" and giving all the real news in undistorted form'.
Hartwell
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