| Parent company | George Newnes Ltd. (1929–1960) Odhams Press (1960–1961) IPC (1961–c. 1965) |
|---|---|
| Status | Defunct; absorbed intoIPC inc. 1965 |
| Founded | 1890 |
| Founder | C. Arthur Pearson |
| Country of origin | England |
| Headquarters location | London |
| Key people | Percy Everett,Lawson Wood,Hedley Le Bas |
| Publication types | newspapers,periodicals,books,comics |
C. Arthur Pearson Ltd. was a British publisher ofnewspapers,periodicals,books, andcomics that operated from 1890 toc. 1965. The company was founded by C. Arthur Pearson, later to be known asSir Arthur Pearson, 1st Baronet.
Pearson was involved in the periodical business during its entire existence, known for publishing such titles asPearson's Weekly,Home Notes,Pearson's Magazine,The Royal Magazine,London Opinion, andMen Only. The company was in the newspaper business from 1898 to 1916, most notably with the formation of theDaily Express. C. Arthur Pearson Ltd also published materials related to theBritish Boy Scout movement.
Initially an independent publisher, Pearson became an imprint ofGeorge Newnes Ltd around 1914. Newnes/Pearson was acquired byOdhams Press in 1960; all three companies became part of theInternational Publishing Company in 1961.
In 1890, after six years of working forGeorge Newnes,C. Arthur Pearson left to form his own publishing business.
Within three weeks of forming C. Arthur Pearson Ltd in 1890, the company began publishing theperiodical journalPearson's Weekly, the first issue of which sold a quarter of a million copies. In January 1894, Pearson launched the women's magazineHome Notes, with the aim of dominating the penny magazine market. In 1896, Pearson launchedPearson's Magazine, a monthly magazine which specialized in speculative literature, political discussion, often of a socialist bent, and the arts. In 1898, Pearson foundedThe Royal Magazine, a monthlyliterary magazine which remained in publication until 1939.London Opinion was launched in 1903, running until 1954, when it merged withMen Only (started in 1935).
Pearson also participated in the early British comics publishing business, launchingBig Budget in 1897 andDan Leno's Comic Journal in 1898.
Pearson was in the book business from 1897 to around 1945. In the latter years of the 19th century, Pearson published a number of notable first editions, includingH. G. Wells'The Invisible Man (1897),Bram Stoker'sMiss Betty (1898), andBaroness Orczy'sThe Emperor's Candlesticks (1899). Pearson published books by such writers asWinifred Graham,Percy F. Westerman,Norman Hunter,Fâ’iz El-Ghusein,Robert Leighton,Marie Connor, andCatherine Christian.
In 1898, Pearson purchased theMorning Herald, and in 1900 merged it into his new creation, thehalfpennyDaily Express. TheExpress was a departure from the papers of its time and created an immediate impact by carrying news instead of only advertisements on its front page. Pearson was successful in establishing papers in provincial locations such as theBirminghamDaily Gazette. Pearson came into direct competition with theDaily Mail and in the resulting commercial fight almost took control ofThe Times, being nominated as its manager, but the deal fell through.[1]
In 1904 Pearson purchased the strugglingThe Standard and its sister paper theEvening Standard for£700,000 from the Johnstone family. He merged theEvening Standard with hisSt James's Gazette and changed theConservative stance of both papers into a pro-Liberal one, but was unsuccessful in arresting the slide in sales and in 1910 sold them to theMP SirDavison Dalziel, and SirAlexander Henderson.[2] TheDaily Express eventually passed, in November 1916, under the control of the Canadian–British tycoon Sir Max Aitken, laterLord Beaverbrook.
Reflecting its founder's support of theBritish Boy Scout movement, C. Arthur Pearson Ltd was responsible for a number of Scouting publications, includingThe Scout magazine, launched in 1908; theScouting for Boys handbook, published in various editions beginning in 1908; andThe Wolf Cub's Handbook, byRobert Baden-Powell, founder of the worldwide scouting movement (1916).
Beginning to lose his sight due toglaucoma despite a 1908 operation, C. Arthur Pearson was progressively forced from 1910 onwards to relinquish his newspaper interests.
Pearson himself retained a cooperative relationship with his old employer,George Newnes Ltd, and by 1914, C. Arthur Pearson Ltd had essentially become an imprint of Newnes.[3] With Pearson's death in 1921, this arrangement was formalized, and in 1929 Newnes purchased all outstanding shares of Pearson's company.[4]
The Pearson imprint focused mostly on magazines from the 1930s through the 1950s, known for ongoing titles likeHome Notes andLondon Opinion, as well asMen Only. Pearson dipped into the pulp magazine market with short-lived titles likeScoops (1934) andFantasy (1938–1939).Pearson's Magazine,Pearson's Weekly, andThe Royal Magazine were all canceled in 1939, on the eve ofWorld War II.
Notable comics titles published by Pearson in the 1950s and early 1960s included theromance comicsMirabelle,The New Glamour, andMarty; and thePicture Stories andPicture Library series.
By 1959, Newness/Pearson was considered one of London's three leading magazine publishers — along withOdhams Press and theHulton Press; that year Odhams acquired both of its rivals.[5][4][6] In 1961, Newnes/Pearson became part of theInternational Publishing Corporation.[7]
The Pearson imprint disappeared sometime around 1965.