The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume XIV. The Victorian Age, Part Two.
§ 15. The Halfpenny morning press
The closing years of the century saw that advent of the halfpenny morning press to which reference has been made. There had been such papers in the provinces for thirty years, The Northern Echo being established in Darlington in 1869, The North Star in the same town in 1880, and, about the same time, The Newcastle Express, in the closing years of a long life, was published at the same price. But, though The Northern Echo achieved somewhat wide reputation in 1880, when it was edited by W. T. Stead, the issue of a halfpenny morning paper in London was a highly speculative undertaking. The Daily Mail, however, was launched in 1896, and proved most popular. Much of its earlier attractiveness was due to the writing of G. W. Steevens, who, after a brilliant career at Oxford, plunged into daily journalism, speedily became famous and died of fever in Ladysmith, where he was one of the besieged in the Boer war. The Daily Express made its appearance in 1900.