• '

  Kirby offers a factual but rip-roaring narrative of press barons, booming circulations and bloody-minded journalists.

  '

  Times Literary Supplement

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  The Newsmongers is a thoroughly researched and well-crafted history of tabloid journalism from the 16th century right through to the click-bait journalism of our own era.

  '

  Irish Examiner

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  Terry Kirby traces the decline of a format that has its origins in the sensationalist pamphlets of the 17th century.

  '

  iNews

• '

  The average Observer reader might be unfamiliar with contemporary tabloid newspapers, but in this informative – if overlong – survey of that subsection of journalism, Terry Kirby studies everyone from Daniel Defoe to Rupert Murdoch, ruthlessly dissecting their venality and opportunism. He also, in the interests of balance, salutes them when they dared to do something their competition would have balked at . . . Few will end this book thinking better of tabloids, but it’s sometimes hard not to admire their – and their proprietors’ – chutzpah.

  '

  The Observer

• '

  Kirby charts a chronological route through three centuries of journalism history by suggesting that the earliest newspapers shared the same craving for popularity. His is a journalist’s approach to tabloid journalism, organised around key movements . . . Think of a significant figure in popular newspapers, and they will feature in The Newsmongers, as do key events in tabloid legend. . . . With his focus on secondary sources, the greatest utility of Kirby’s contribution is the extent to which it brings together the leading cast of those involved in three centuries of "tabloid" journalism in a chronological order. Given that it is a cast of epic proportions, that is no mean feat.

  '

  History Today

• '

  Kirby doesn't avoid the shameful episodes – the Rothermere titles' flirtation with fascism, the Sun and Hillsborough, and so on – but nor is the book a hatchet job. It is a balanced look at a phenomenon probably now in its twilight years, at least in print form . . . The Newsmongers is at its strongest when covering the ceaseless innovation that characterised tabloids throughout much of the twentieth century . . . Kirby's book is an entertaining read, or as a tabloid might put it, a sensational soaraway success.

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  The Critic

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  Tabloid journalism has had a colorful, gaudy history of sowing the seeds of the untrustworthy, harmful information that pervades the internet . . . A worthy read for people interested in the role sensationalized news media plays on public life and discourse.

  '

  Library Journal

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  A fabulous, detailed and hugely entertaining account of tabloid journalism, starting from the first cave paintings to the more recent abuses of privacy by some of our most popular newspapers. Terry Kirby reveals how a tabloid sensibility has always been a part of our media landscape and is likely to continue well into the digital age. The book confronts the moguls, editors, headlines and scandals that have dominated tabloid life in the search for influence, notoriety and profits. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand the role of tabloids in British society.

  '

  Des Freedman, Professor of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London

• '

  Tabloids were founded to inform and entertain, and this history manages to do both. Descriptive and largely uncritical, Kirby does something very few of the editors whose work he analyses would ever allow. He lets the facts speak for themselves.

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  Roy Greenslade, former editor, media commentator and professor of journalism

• '

  A first-class book from a first-class journalist. Terry Kirby tells a highly readable story that whisks us from the age of deference by way of scandal, sleaze and sensation to the era of clickbait, the Kardashians and rampant criminality. The Newsmongers presents a more than timely insight into the most powerful political force in the UK today: the tabloid press.

  '

  Brian Cathcart, former Professor of Journalism at Kingston University and a former director of Hacked Off

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  Like its subject, this book is not only accessible and entertaining, but a detailed, critical and authoritative history of a vital and controversial part of our culture and politics. At the very moment when newspapers are most challenged, The Newsmongers reminds us that journalism is always changing and that the popular press is often the most innovative.

  '

  Charlie Beckett, founding director of Polis and Professor in the Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics

1 ‘Strange Newes’
2 The Rise of the Moguls
3 Make Sure You Secure a Copy for Madam
4 The Prerogative of the Harlot
5 The Sun Rises
6 Gotcha
7 The Daily Maxwell
8 Three Headlines
9 The Dark Ages
10 The Dark Arts
11 Leveson and After
12 Churnalism 2.0
13 Three Court Cases
Conclusion: The Current Condition of Planet Tabloid

References
Further Reading
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index

Terry Kirby is Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Goldsmiths, University of London, and author of The Trials of the Baroness (1991). He has been a journalist for more than four decades and was a founder member of staff at The Independent, where he worked for more than twenty years in a number of roles, including crime correspondent, night editor and chief reporter.