The past fortnight has been full of rumours as to
a change of proprietorship in the Nation, a change which would involve the retirement of Mr. Massingham--, a journalist of high distinction though one whose views are not ours. The buyers are said to be a syndicate of Independent Liberals which includes Mr. Keynes, Mr. Ramsay .Muir, Mr. E. D. Simon and Mr. Layton. That these gentlemen have a right to buy. and will only be buying from worthy motives we fully admit, but we cannot but express our sympathy with a writer who declares his strong personal indignation that a paper which owes its prestige "to the fact that it was the creation and expression of Mr. Massingham's personality should be sold like dead property in the market." That lack of stability is the tragedy of the newspaper Press. It is a tragedy for readers, for writers and for editors. A transaction of a purely financial nature takes place in a back room in a solicitor's office, and the readers of a paper are passed over to another owner as if they were literally adscripti glebae —serfs attached to the soil.
Previous page
