An authoritative survey of twentieth-century and contemporary British and Irish press and periodical media between 1900 and 2017

This volume responds to the absence of wide-ranging, up-to-date analysis of newspapers and periodicals across Britain and Ireland in the twentieth century by providing an ambitious, interdisciplinary and research-led collection of essays that seeks to explore long-term continuities and changes.

The Introduction provides an initial overview of the century by studying the evolution of the British and Irish press across five milestone years, and, in particular, examining how the leading titles in the market - the popular daily newspapers - sought to develop their appeal to a broad, mainstream audience. Five core chapters then analyse in more detail the central features of the environment in which the press operated: economic forces and patterns of ownership, the institutions and technologies of production and distribution, the reading audience, the legal and regulatory framework, and the identities and communities that structured the market. The main body of the volume comprises a series of thematic chapters attending to different aspects of the creation, content and impact of newspapers and periodicals in this period. A timeline of significant events for cross-reference and an extensive bibliography for further research are also included, making this a thorough resource for researchers and students alike.


Martin Conboy is Professor of Journalism History at the University of Sheffield where he is also the co-director (with Adrian Bingham) of the Centre for the Study of Journalism and History. He is the author of seven single-authored books on the language and history of journalism as well as co-author and editor of nine more.

Adrian Bingham is Professor of Modern British History at the University of Sheffield. He has written widely about the popular press, including Gender, Modernity, and the Popular Press in Inter-War Britain (2004), Family Newspapers? Sex, Private Life and the British Popular Press 1918-78 (2009) and, with Professor Martin Conboy, Tabloid Century: The Popular Press in Britain, 1896 to the Present (2015).