Sir George Newnes Bt. | |
|---|---|
 Newnes, no later than 1897 | |
| Member of Parliament,Newmarket | |
| In office 1885–1895 | |
| Preceded by | N/A |
| Succeeded by | Harry McCalmont |
| Member of Parliament,Swansea | |
| In office 1900–1910 | |
| Preceded by | John Dillwyn-Llewellyn |
| Succeeded by | Alfred Mond |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1851-03-13)13 March 1851 Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, England |
| Died | 9 June 1910(1910-06-09) (aged 59) Lynton, Devon, England |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2, includingFrank Newnes |
| Parent | Thomas Mold Newnes |
| Residence(s) | Hollerday House,Lynton, Devon |
| Education | Silcoates School City of London School |
| Occupation | Newspaper Proprietor, Publisher, Editor & Politician |
| Known for | George Newnes Ltd. |
Sir George Newnes, 1st Baronet (13 March 1851 – 9 June 1910) was a Britishpublisher andeditor and a founding figure in popular journalism. Newnes also served as aLiberal PartyMember of Parliament for two decades. His company,George Newnes Ltd, was known for such periodicals asTit-Bits andThe Strand Magazine; it continued publishing consumer magazines such asNova long after his death.
His father, Thomas Mold Newnes, was aCongregational churchminister at the Glenorchy Chapel,Matlock.[1][2] George Newnes was born inMatlock Bath,Derbyshire,[1][3] and educated atSilcoates School and then at Shireland Hall,Warwickshire, and theCity of London School.[1][2] In 1875, he married Priscilla Hillyard.[2] They had two sons; the eldest died at age eight (his death was said to have devastated his father),[4] andFrank Newnes (born 1876).
In 1867 he entered commerce in the "fancy goods" trade, working in London and Manchester.[1][2]
He began his career in publishing in 1881 when he foundedTit-Bits[5] as a direct response to theElementary Education Act 1870 which introduced education for children aged 5–12 and hence produced a new young generation able to read.[6]
The magazine was initially published in Manchester like a mini-encyclopedia, containing extracts from books and other publications, but principally a diverse range of tit-bits of information presented in an easy-to-read format. He funded the magazine by opening avegetarian restaurant in Manchester.[7] The addition of competitions increased the readership of the periodical, and in 1884 Newnes moved publication to London.[1] He began to work withW. T. Stead, with whom he founded theReview of Reviews in 1890.[1]Tit-Bits reached a circulation of 700,000 by the end of the 19th century.[7] 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.[7]
Arguably his best-known publication wasThe Strand Magazine, begun in 1891, in which SirArthur Conan Doyle was first able to publish hisSherlock Holmesmystery series.[7] He also founded othermagazine titles, includingThe Wide World Magazine (1888),The Westminster Gazette (1893), andCountry Life (1897).
Politically, Newnes wasLiberal, and in1885 he was elected asMember of Parliament (MP) for the newly created constituency ofEastern Cambridgeshire or Newmarket. He held the seat for ten years, before his defeat by theConservative millionaire horse-breeder,Harry McCalmont in1895.[1] In addition, Newnes refoundedThe Westminster Gazette in 1893 to support the Liberal party whenThe Pall Mall Gazette became aUnionist paper.[1]
In 1895 he was created abaronet "of Wildcroft, in the parish ofPutney, in thecounty of London; of Hollerday Hill, in the parish of Lynton, and Hesketh House, in the borough ofTorquay, both in the county of Devon."[8] He paid for the newPutney Library, built in 1899. Around this time he became the main sponsor of theSouthern Cross Expedition to Antarctica; part of his contribution was the purchase of a movie camera from Arthur S. Newman, who would later supply similar cameras toHerbert Ponting of Captain Scott's 1910-3Terra Nova Expedition andJohn Baptist Lucius Noel, photographer on the 1924Mount Everest expedition.
He re-entered theCommons in1900 as MP forSwansea, and held the seat until he retired at theJanuary 1910 general election.[1]
Newnes built a large home called Hollerday House inLynton,North Devon.[1] It was destroyed by fire in 1913.[9] He played a major part in the development of the twin towns of Lynton andLynmouth. He built an innovative cliff railway — theLynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway — to join the two towns, and also provided the town hall and other amenities.[1] Largely as a result of Sir George's efforts, the 19-mileLynton and Barnstaple Railway opened in 1898 ostensibly to bring visitors from the mainline railways at Barnstaple. (He was also involved in funding theBridgnorth Cliff Railway and theClifton Rocks Railway, as well as theLynton Village railway station and theLynmouth Bay railway station.)
Newnes provided a silver cup for theNewnes Trophy series of chess matches between Great Britain and the United States, conducted over transatlantic cable from 1896 to 1911.[10]
Newnes was involved in the creation ofThe Inambari Para-Rubber Estates, Limited and held 100,000 shares valued at £1 each. His son Frank became a director in the company, which exported rubber collected near theInambari River in Peru.[11]
He was chairman of the board of directors ofCommonwealth Oil Corporation,[12] and the abandoned oil shale mining site ofNewnes, in Australia, was named after him.
Sir George Newnes died at his Lynton home in June 1910 aged 59, having suffered ill health fromdiabetes for some time.[1] He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son,Frank Newnes, who had served as MP forBassetlaw,Nottinghamshire from 1906 to 1910.[1]
In 1891 his publishing business was formed into a company that bore his name,George Newnes Ltd. The company was reconstructed in 1897 with a capital of 1,000,000 pounds, and began the publication of books.[1] In 1896 Newnes founded the book series, The Penny Library of Famous Books.[13]
After Newnes' death in 1910, his sonFrank Newnes succeeded him as president of George Newnes Ltd. Decades after the proprietor's death, George Newnes Ltd (and its imprintC. Arthur Pearson Ltd) continued into the 1960s as one of London's three leading magazine publishers – along withOdhams Press and theHulton Press – producing a diverse range of titles fromLady's Companion,Woman's Own,Nova,Rave andFlair, toPractical Mechanics andPractical Television.
In 1959, the company was purchased by Odhams,[14][15][16] and in 1961, the company became part of theInternational Publishing Corporation.[17]
Today, books under the Newnes imprint continue to be published byElsevier.[18][19]
Media related toGeorge Newnes at Wikimedia Commons
Works by or aboutGeorge Newnes atWikisource| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forNewmarket 1885 –1895 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Swansea 1900 –Jan. 1910 | Succeeded by |
| Baronetage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baronet (of Wildcroft) 1895–1910 | Succeeded by |
