Tit-Bits

The first issue ofTit-Bits, dated 22 October 1881
Frequency	Weekly
Founder	George Newnes
Founded	1881
First issue	22 October 1881 (1881-10-22)
Final issue	18 July 1984 (1984-07-18)
Country	United Kingdom
Based in	London
Language	English

Tit-Bits from all the interesting Books and Newspapers of the World, more commonly known asTit-Bits and later asTitbits, was a British weekly magazine founded byGeorge Newnes, a founding figure in popular journalism, on 22 October 1881.^[1]

In 1886, the magazine's headquarters moved fromManchester toLondon^[2] where it paved the way for popular journalism – most significantly, theDaily Mail was founded byAlfred Harmsworth, a contributor toTit-Bits, and theDaily Express was launched byArthur Pearson, who worked atTit-Bits for five years after winning a competition to get a job on the magazine.^[3] The London offices were at 12 Burleigh Street, off the Strand.^{[citation needed]}

From the outset, the magazine was a mass-circulation commercial publication on cheap newsprint which soon reached sales of between 400,000 and 600,000. By the turn of the century, it became the first periodical in Britain to sell over one million copies per issue.^[4] Each issue presented a diverse range of tit-bits of information in an easy-to-read format, with the emphasis on human interest stories concentrating on drama and sensation.^[5] Later issues featured short stories and full-length fiction, including works by authors such asRider Haggard andIsaac Asimov, plus three very early stories byChristopher Priest.^{[citation needed]}

Virginia Woolf submitted her first article to the paper in 1890, at the age of eight, but it was turned down.^[6] The first humorous article byP. G. Wodehouse, "Men Who Missed Their Own Weddings", appeared inTit-Bits in November 1900.^[7] During theFirst World WarIvor Novello won aTitbits competition to write a song soldiers could sing at the front: he pennedKeep the Home Fires Burning.^[8]

Pin-ups appeared on the magazine's covers after the Second World War, and by 1955, circulation peaked at 1,150,000. The name changed from "Tit-Bits" in the issue of 28 December 1967 to "Titbits" in January 1968. In 1979Reveille (a weekly tabloid with a virtually identical demographic) was merged intoTitbits, and the magazine was rebranded asTitbits incorporating Reveille. This, however, was dropped in 1981. Following a wage dispute at ownerIPC Magazines, publication ceased on 9 June 1984 and its closure was announced at the end of June. At the time,Titbits was selling 200,000 copies per issue.^[4] A final issue was published on 18 July 1984^[8] under its last editor Paul Hopkins. It was taken over byAssociated Newspapers'Weekend. At the time, theFinancial Times describedTitbits as "the 103-year-old progenitor of Britain's popular press".^[8]Weekend itself closed in 1989.

The magazine name survived as a glossy adult monthly,Titbits International.

The success ofTit-Bits inspired a number of other inexpensive weeklies to ape its format, some short-lived and others, such asAnswers becoming major successes in their own right. Within the first six months of its existence,Tit-Bits had inspired twelve imitators, growing to 26 within a year of its debut.^[9] Examples of papers said to be imitators include:

• The Ha'porth^[9]
• Illustrated Bits^[10]
• Rare-Bits^[9]
• Scraps^[10]
• Sketchy Bits, published in London by Charles Shurey^[9]
• Spare Time^[10]
• Tid-Bits, published in the United States^[9]

InAll Things Considered byG. K. Chesterton, the author contrastsTit-Bits withThe Times, saying: "Let any honest reader... ask himself whether he would really rather be asked in the next two hours to write the front page ofThe Times, which is full of long leading articles, or the front page ofTit-Bits, which is full of short jokes." Reference to the magazine is also made inJames Joyce'sUlysses,^[11]George Orwell'sAnimal Farm,C. P. Snow'sThe Affair,^[12]James Hilton'sLost Horizon,Virginia Woolf'sMoments of Being,H. G. Wells'The First Men in the Moon andKipps,A. J. Cronin'sThe Stars Look Down andP. G. Wodehouse'sNot George Washington. It is also mentioned inStanley Houghton's playThe Dear Departed. Wells also mentioned it in his bookExperiment in Autobiography. The magazine is parodied as "Chit Chat" inGeorge Gissing'sNew Grub Street. In the closing scene of the filmKind Hearts and Coronets (1949), the protagonist Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price) is approached by a journalist (Arthur Lowe) fromTit-Bits.

The magazine was mistakenly referenced alongsidePlayboy andThe Sun'sPage 3 inTom Robinson's 1978 song "Glad to Be Gay". Robinson had misinterpreted the magazine's title and assumed its content to be more salacious.^[13][14]

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• 1881 establishments in the United Kingdom
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• Defunct literary magazines published in the United Kingdom
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• Magazines established in 1881
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• Magazines published in Manchester
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