Early publishing
Edward Lloyd was the third son of a family impoverished by the father's intermittent bankruptcy. He was born in Thornton Heath and spent his life in London. After leaving school at 14, he abandoned work in a law firm when he discovered a much more absorbing topic from his evening studies at the London Mechanics' Institute – printing. This shaped his ambitions and fuelled a lifelong passion for invention and machinery. At the same time, his first-hand knowledge of how people lived in the overcrowded streets on the City's periphery inspired him to encourage poor people to read and so to improve their lot in life. Charging a penny for all his regular publications, his contribution to the spread ofPopular fiction
Lloyd's responsibilities grew in 1834 after he married and his first son was born. He wrote and printed a shorthand primer based on what he had learnt at the Institute, entering all the symbols by hand and selling it for 6 d. In search of a more stable source of income, he turned to serialised fiction. Some appeared as stand-alone instalments and some in periodicals. Over the years, he launched many of these under names such as ''People’s Periodical and Family Library'', ''Lloyd’s Entertaining Journal'' and ''Lloyd’s Penny Weekly Miscellany of Romance and General Interest''. Others focused on practical matters like gardening and household management or mixed such material with stories. Both stories and magazines continued for as long as demand for them lasted. As a publisher, Lloyd lacked pretension. His output was free of snobbery, social or intellectual. He made no claim to originality and frequently used other people's good ideas. As long as the telling was original, plots could be taken from anywhere – a freedom still endorsed by copyright law. If a story was not to his readers’ liking, he told the author to finish it off in one episode and start another. From the mid-1830s until the early 1850s, his prolific output eclipsed the competition. His first efforts were the rather bloodthirsty lives of pirates and highwaymen that earned the name “penny bloods” (later called “ penny dreadfuls"). However, his speciality was “romances” – exciting tales of love and adventure. ''The String of Pearls'', with Sweeney Todd as its anti-hero, and his vampire story, '' Varney'', were in this category. He published about 200 romances whereas his closest competitor, George Pierce, published fewer than 50. Many freelance authors contributed the material, at first paid by the line and later by the page. A pool of engravers supplied woodcuts for illustration. The authors he used most were James Malcolm Rymer (1814–84) andPlagiarism
Lloyd made an early killing from plagiarisingFrom fiction to Fleet Street
It is often said that Lloyd grew ashamed of his early publishing activities and sent people around the country to buy up and burn all that they could lay hands on. As his grandchildren seem to have been unaware of his early career, knowledge of it may have been suppressed. In 1861, he held a remainders sale signalling a very public end of the business, but he may have been prevailed upon later to rewrite his own history by a family that had reached the heights of the Victorian bourgeoisie. Lloyd's fortunes were volatile. He averted bankruptcy in 1838 yet, in 1841, he and his eldest brother Thomas paid cash when they joined theNewspaper publishing
It is clear that Lloyd wanted to publish a newspaper from early on but stamp duty made it too expensive for his market. Not only was the publication of news subject to a 1d duty, but advertising also bore a tax of 1s 9d per ad and paper, a duty of 1½d per pound in weight. One of the ways to avoid the duty on news was to publish a fictitious or historical story that echoed current news so that readers would learn the outcome of the actual event from the dénouement of the story. The title ''Lloyd’s Penny Sunday Times & People’s Police Gazette'' suggests that this contained such “news”, along with some out-and-out fiction. Although the duty on news was the most invidious “ tax on knowledge”, the heavy duty on paper had a malign effect on newspaper economics. The Fourdrinier process produced paper on a continuous reel. The efficiency of "web printing" that this promised was thwarted by the Stamp Office's insistence on stamping the paper in sheet form. Although this was good for print-room workers, the advantages for Fleet Street were delayed by 50 years.''Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper''
The launch of the Sunday paper that eventually became ''Lloyd’s Weekly'' was blighted by two of Lloyd's bad habits. First, he copied the title and format of the hugely successful '' Illustrated London News'' that had been launched in May 1842. Second, he succumbed to the urge to avoid stamp duty. ''Lloyd’s Penny Illustrated Newspaper'' first became ''Lloyd's Illustrated London Newspaper'' when the Stamp Office promised to fine Lloyd for failing to pay stamp duty. This version fared no better: quality engravings proved to be too costly, so Lloyd abandoned them and renamed the paper ''Lloyd’s Weekly London Newspaper''. He had to raise the price to 3d later in 1843, increasing the word count to compensate. The paper's editorials took a fiercely radical line to begin with. Since Lloyd controlled the contents himself, this probably reflected his views, but there is no direct evidence of his political sympathies. It was equally important for him to follow the radical line because his intended readers would have had no truck with the politics of Whig or Tory. Lloyd did most of the tasks now associated with an editor himself, keeping it on a tight leash all his life. The paper consisted largely of objective news reporting. The idea propagated by historians of the Victorian press that ''Lloyd’s Weekly'' specialised in crime, scandal and sensation could not be more misleading. Sure, it carried police and court news but it was written with prosaic decency and had nothing in common with today's colourful tabloids. Lloyd wanted the man of the house to be able to take it home and have the confidence to leave it for his wife and even his children to read. Lloyd appointed a journalist of high literary standing, Douglas Jerrold, in 1852. The salary (£1,000 a year) was extravagant for one leading article a week, indicating Lloyd's determination to recruit a star editor. Jerrold was liberal, but with a small “L” rather than as a Liberal Party follower. The two men got on well and it is believed that Jerrold had considerable influence, particularly in reining in Lloyd's wilder tendencies. After Douglas died in 1857, his son Blanchard took over and continued until his death in 1885. The role then passed to Lloyd's trusted long-time employee, Thomas Catling. Having started in the print room, Catling became a reporter in the classic news-hound mould and later sub-editor. He proved to be a loyal friend and indispensable assistant to Lloyd. He was a keen supporter of''The Daily Chronicle''
In his early 60s, Lloyd was running a hugely successful Sunday paper using the most efficient technology available. He decided to launch a daily newspaper, no doubt partly to justify a state-of-the-art printing operation that was only needed once a week. A daily was surely necessary too to establish a serious Fleet Street presence. He bought a local London paper in 1876 and remodelled it as a national newspaper in 1877. What had once been the ''Clerkenwell News'' was highly profitable due to its extensive advertising – a matter of great interest to Lloyd. He paid £30,000 for it, then spent a further £150,000 on developing it (about £19m in modern money). Aimed at the middle market, the paper was valued for its news coverage: "Its strength seems to lie outside politics, for it is read, not for what it says about Liberal or Conservative, nor for the sensationalism which is the mainstay of some other papers, but chiefly for its accurate representation of what is going on around us." Lloyd was keen to introduce books to readers who would not otherwise consider reading them. The editor during his lifetime was a literary Irish journalist, Robert Whelan Boyle. He died in February 1890, two months before Lloyd. He and the editors who followed were all enthusiastic for the paper's literary preference, and it carried many book reviews and essays. To the objection that the target market did not “belong to the book-buying classes”, they said: “Why should ooksnot be brought within the knowledge of the man in the street?” In 1904, Robert Donald was appointed the ''Chronicle''’s editor. He was a capable newspaperman, fiercely independent and scrupulous in his adherence to principle. This proved to be his and the Lloyd empire's downfall in 1918. In April 1918, Lloyd George, by then prime minister, assured the House of Commons that the British army had not been reduced numerically before meeting the German onslaught in March. This was questioned by Sir Frederick Maurice, the general responsible for military management on the Western Front. The ''Chronicle'' reported the Maurice Debate in the House of Commons factually, but Donald then employed Maurice as the paper's military correspondent. Enraged, Lloyd George persuaded Sir Henry Dalziel, already a newspaper owner, to take over the ''Chronicle''. Money was raised from friends in the party and by selling peerages. After keen negotiation with Frank Lloyd, Edward Lloyd's son, the ''Chronicle'' was sold for £1.6m. The Lloyd valuation of the business (''Chronicle'', ''Lloyd’s Weekly'' plus book and magazine publishing) was £1.1m. To be paid nearly half as much again was an offer too good for Lloyd's heirs to refuse. Donald and Maurice had been kept in the dark until the day before the takeover took effect, raising some doubts about Frank Lloyd's loyalty to his employees. The descent of one of the few truly independent newspapers into political ownership was deplored at the time and has some shock value to this day.Industrial innovation
Edward Lloyd's enthusiastic embrace of new technology did much to drive the efficiency of newspaper production forward for half a century. He also understood the importance of advertising in the Fleet Street economy and devised several ingenious promotional schemes. From useful gadgets, like speaking tubes between rooms in his offices, to vast costly machines producing thousands of papers and miles of newsprint every day, Lloyd made it his business to research and understand anything of potential interest. His two epoch-changing innovations were use of Hoe's rotary printing presses and the harvesting of esparto grass for paper-making.Printing
When ''Lloyd’s Weekly''’s circulation was soaring in the 1850s, greater speed was urgently needed. Lloyd heard of the rotary press developed byPaper-making
Also in the 1850s, supply problems prompted Lloyd to set up paper-making capacity of his own. Cotton rags, cotton waste and straw could no longer meet demand. He researched the alternatives. Esparto grass, a tough desert grass previously sourced from Spain for making quality paper, looked promising. Lloyd set off forAdvertising
Lloyd's most adventurous promotional wheeze was to stamp copper coins with the words “Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper 3d Post Free”. He bought a machine that could stamp 250 an hour. A letter to ''The Times'' complained about defacement of the coin of the realm and Parliament passed an Act in 1853 making the stamping of coins a crime. Lloyd was not unduly put out because the whole affair had given massive publicity to his newspaper. He also continued using coins for advertising by glueing paper discs to them. Another ploy was to send men out during the night to paint advertisements for ''Lloyd’s Weekly'' on London's pavements. In promotion of his own publications, Lloyd introduced the pictorial poster. It has been said that he spent a lot of time haring around the country looking for places to put up hoardings. While he would no doubt have looked for suitable sites while travelling, the idea that he would have taken time off from his superhuman workload in London to do something that could so easily be delegated is not believable. He had 25 teams of poster stickers equipped with advertisements of various shapes and sizes who travelled far and wide. Hatton reported that he spent as much as £300 a week (£32,500 now) on "billing and posting". Catling reported that Lloyd made frequent visits to barbers’ shops to sound out local sales opportunities and to hear the gossip – a resource for which barbers’ shops were famous. Newspapers’ revenue from advertising developed alongside Lloyd's career. Until abolished in 1853, the duty was prohibitive. Since a new habit had to be established, it took the market a while to get going. ''Lloyd’s Weekly'' carried half a page in 1855 and all the ads were commercial. By 1865, the volume had risen to two pages and half were personal small ads. By 1875, advertising of both types took up more than three pages. At the ''Daily Chronicle'', advertising yielded as much as 40% of revenues and volume had to be limited to no more than half the newspaper. Following the local newspaper tradition, it carried quantities of small ads.Personal life
Lloyd's family background was middle class, if indigent. His parents imbued their three sons with sound values. The middle class aspirations that went with them were a mixed blessing, though. Edward's eldest brother Thomas became a doctor and Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and Edward clearly did well, but sadly his middle brother William never made it and died from alcoholism. Lloyd's marriage to Isabella McArthur in 1834 was followed by the birth of Edward Jr in the same year and Charles in 1840. They both lived into old age. A third son Alfred was born in 1842 but lived only 17 months. From April 1844, although still married to Isabella, Edward had set up house with Mary Harvey in Forest Hill. She was the wife of Lloyd's paper supplier William Mullett and the liaison led to Mullett suing Lloyd for "Criminal Conversation" in December 1844. William Mullet had discovered the affair and his revelations to Isabella caused her to move out of the Salisbury Square house. Mary and Edward had a child, Frederick, born in February 1845. Mary died of cholera in August 1849 and Frederick was brought up by his father and he participated fully in the business and was one of the four children who received a larger than average share under his will. He provided for Edward Jr and Charles, although they also spent time with their mother's family. He then formed the relationship with Maria Martins that was to last for the rest of his life. It is not known when they met, except that they were present in the same house at the time of the 1851 census. As Isabella was still alive, they could not marry. They did so, quietly in Essex, three weeks after Isabella's death in 1867. Eleven of their 15 children had already been born. The Victorian world would have taken an increasingly dim view of Lloyd's record and might have condemned him for not taking to a life of celibacy on separation from Isabella. This would not have been expected of ordinary people in the 1840s but, by the 1870s, the overriding importance of social standing would have made it imperative to hide the illegitimacy of 12 of his children and desirable to draw a veil over his modest origins and racy early career. If it was indeed the family who suppressed the truth, they did him a great disservice. By the mid-twentieth century, all his achievements had been forgotten, while the illegitimacy and his early publishing were easily traced. To these were added speculative aspersions, such as his greed and meanness in business, licentious behaviour that resulted in many more children whom he abandoned, and the vulgarity of all his publications, from the penny bloods to ''Lloyd’s Weekly''. All this went completely contrary to the views of people who knew him. He was greatly respected for his incisive intelligence, untiring energy and many talents: “Personally, he was a very interesting man, his talk – shrewd, penetrating and pertinent – being a reflection of his character” (the London correspondent of the ''South Australian Chronicle'', 1890). Only records of his relationships with people whom he met in the course of business survive, but his ability to have warm lasting friendships with several of them (e.g. Douglas Jerrold, Richard Hoe, Tom Catling) suggests a man of considerable humanity and good humour. Although Frank, Lloyd's eldest son by Maria, outshone his father in terms of pure philanthropy, the evidence suggests that Lloyd was also a good employer. Writing about his Bow Bridge paper mill and printing works in 1875, William Glenny Crory described an orderly well-run operation employing 200 apparently contented staff. In 1862-63, ''Lloyd's Weekly'' raised £3,676 (£410,000 now) for the victims of the cotton famine in Lancashire partly from the proceeds of above-average sales of the paper in December 1862. Worker participation was introduced at the paper mills in Kent during Edward's lifetime. Frank took this much further and built a model village for the paper workers in the 1920s. Lloyd Park in Croydon, UK is formed of land bequeathed by Frank Lloyd and is named after him. All Edward's children were well educated, mostly at small boarding schools – a practice that was near-universal at the time for those who could afford it. Frank was partly educated in France. Others of his sons were probably educated abroad for at least part of their schooling. Lloyd considered that it was important for his sons to be brought up with a view to entering business. Five of them worked for him in various capacities, with Frank shouldering most responsibility on his father's death. The only child who went to university was his youngest son, Percy, who studied at Oxford and became a clergyman. Percy's lasting memorial is Voewood House in Norfolk. He commissioned the architect Edward S Prior to build it in 1902. One feature of Lloyd's life and character that seems remarkable to the modern eye, though normal enough for people of his generation, was his assumption of financial responsibility for his business. Had it failed, his personal fortune would have gone with it. He set up a company in 1843, before limited liability was legally available, but it does not seem to have been used for outside investors. He probably used it as an accounting convenience while bearing full responsibility for its debts. In 1890, he reconstituted Edward Lloyd Ltd as a limited liability company. Slightly more than half the shares were to be held in trust for his grandchildren. He kept the remaining shares himself and left these by a will, drawn up at the same time, that tied up his own property in trust for his children for 21 years. Probate on the will valued his estate at £565,000. Although the value of the shares in the family trust is speculative, it would probably have added £350,000 or so, making him worth roughly £105m in today's money on 8 April 1890, when he died. He is buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery.References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lloyd, Edward 19th-century British newspaper publishers (people) Publishers (people) from London People from Thornton Heath 1815 births 1890 deaths 19th-century English businesspeople Burials at Highgate Cemetery