A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THE widening activities of the company which owns the Daily Mirror are worth watching. The Mirror itself, with a circulation of over 4,000,000, is reckoned an asset to the Labour Party, though it is not conspicuous for political pronouncements of great profundity. A year ago (at the instance, I believe, of the Colonial Office) the Mirror, which had already acquired the Nigerian Daily Times, took over the West African Graphic Co. Then in June, diverging into quite another field, it bought a controlling interest in the Melbourne Argus and the Australasian. Now I see it stated that that old-established weekly Public Opinion, with which the name of Percy L. Parker was so long associated, is to become a Mirror publication. These are varied adventures, and they add interest to the frequently asked question, who owns the Daily Mirror. The short answer is that most of the shares in the Mirror itself are owned by its companion the Sunday Pictorial, and most of the shares in the Sunday Pictorial are owned by the Daily Mirror. The chairman of both, Mr. A. Guy Bartholomew, appears little in the public eye. He is not to be found in Who's Who. No single person owns any- thing like a predominant interest in either paper, but nearly 20 per cent. of the Sunday Pictorial shares are held by bank nominees.
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