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The change ran deeper, however. While individual copies of newspapers were each taxed, the economics of newspaper production favoured large weekly publications. Untaxed, it became possible to sell a newspaper for a penny, and the advantage lay with smaller, more frequent publications that could keep
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gained a high profile and wide circulation. Its sales peaked at 2,500 per issue; and with the majority of newspaper readers during the era reading or listening to newspapers in communal reading rooms rather than buying their own copies, it was probably reaching about half of the population of
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to the editorship and maintained the popular appeal of a moderate
Radical line. Chartism at the time was losing support in Birmingham through its adoption of a more extremist position in tune with the more pronounced class divisions of the cities of the
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s fortunes were also helped by economic changes. Rising levels of literacy and decreasing costs of production, coupled with Feeney and
Jaffray's journalistic and commercial flair, saw circulation rise to 23,000 by the 1850s. The boom in
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With the decline in local agitation for reform in the 1840s the newspaper's circulation dropped dramatically however. By 1844 it was only selling 1,200 copies per week when it was sold by Parkes to
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National
Petition of 1838. With its close connections to the leaders of Birmingham's reform movement—which itself was at the forefront of national political life—the
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Birmingham. The appeal of
Chartism meant that its influence also stretched well beyond the local area: in 1839 it sold seventy-one weekly copies as far away as
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365:, which he edited, a power not just in Birmingham. One official investigator of 1839 found seventy-one weekly copies in Dunfermline (
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This article is about the nineteenth century newspaper. For the eighteenth century newspaper of the same name, see
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Feeney was first and foremost a newspaperman rather than a political agitator. He swiftly appointed the young
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their readers more up to date. Feeney and
Jaffray initially contemplated a second weekly edition of the
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and Feeney and
Jaffray's instinct was to follow local opinion rather than stay loyal to a movement.
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The newspaper's political tone changed dramatically in 1832, however, when it was sold to prominent
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was making a profit of ÂŁ5,000 per week, comparable to that of a national newspaper.
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newspaper by a printer called
William Hodgetts in 1825 to provide an alternative to
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as editor. Douglas was a national figure of the reform movement: the secretary of
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removed the tax on newspapers and transformed the news trade. The price of the
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was initially maintained as a weekly publication complementing the daily
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Maccoby, S. (2001). "The People's
Charter and the National Petition".
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was reduced from seven pence to four pence and circulation boomed.
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was one which initially appeared as a prime opportunity. The 1855
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The
Birmingham Post, 1857-1957 : a centenary retrospect
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building of the late 1840s greatly boosted the market for
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388:Defunct newspapers published in the United Kingdom
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403:Newspapers published in Birmingham, West Midlands
183:The change that ultimately led to the end of the
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318:"Taxing times for city's pioneer newspaper man"
52:in 1844 and was a direct ancestor of today's
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398:History of Birmingham, West Midlands
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413:Publications disestablished in 1869
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349:. London: Routledge. p. 167.
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66:The newspaper was founded as a
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361:R. K Douglas was making the
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116:Birmingham Political Union
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85:British Newspaper Archive
79:Historical copies of the
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293:Digitised copies of the
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236:s Saturday edition—the
209:Birmingham Daily Press
169:classified advertising
118:and the author of the
238:Saturday Evening Post
213:Birmingham Daily Post
136:John Frederick Feeney
50:John Frederick Feeney
393:Chartist newspapers
369:., 1839, xlii, 203)
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347:English Radicalism
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382:Categories
248:References
35:Birmingham
367:Parl. Pap
330:5 January
221:in 1857.
189:Stamp Act
97:Unitarian
73:The Times
31:newspaper
160:Journal'
120:Chartist
46:Chartist
280:2671825
242:Journal
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193:Journal
185:Journal
173:Journal
165:railway
124:Journal
101:Radical
62:History
39:England
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142:Feeney
234:Post'
351:ISBN
332:2008
276:OCLC
230:Post
224:The
158:The
99:and
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23:The
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