Transcript John Bull Spawns the Dominant Woman: The Emergence and Sustained Rise of Odhams Press, 1847-1939 Howard Cox and Simon Mowatt ABH Annual Conference Henley Business School 1-2

John Bull Spawns the
Dominant Woman:
The Emergence and Sustained Rise of
Odhams Press, 1847-1939
Howard Cox and Simon Mowatt
ABH Annual Conference
Henley Business School
1-2 July 2011
Odhams’ business originally set up in 1847
with contract to print church newspaper
2
Julius Elias
(later Lord Southwood)
was employed by
Odhams in 1894
to manage a
newly-opened branch
in Covent Garden
3
Horatio Bottomley, MP
“The World,
The Flesh and
The Devil”
“The only political conviction he ever
convincingly entertained was the
determination to gratify his own
interests.” (Oxford DNB)
4
Elias’ concern that Odhams’
business was too dependent
on the printing of John Bull
led him to develop the firm’s
own magazines initially
aimed at the
movie-going market
Sales of John Bull peaked
at 1.75 million in 1919
A rival weekly to
John Bull was launched
by Odhams in 1915 called
The Passing Show
5
In 1920 Elias led the formation of
Odhams Press Ltd to assume control
over the publishing of John Bull
Used some of the capital to acquire
the Borough Bill Posting Company
to further expand its activities in
display advertising
6
In early 1920s Odhams launched
more popular magazine titles….
but Bottomleys’ conviction
for fraud in 1922 led to
collapse in sales of John Bull
7
Need to utilise printing
capacity led Odhams
to begin publishing
newspapers
Sporting Life (1920)
People (1925)
Daily Herald (1929)
8
Odhams’ Woman was the first magazine in UK
to be printed exclusively using photogravure
with very high quality
colour illustrations.
9
Odhams’
huge
gravure
printing
plant in
Watford
10
The Rise of Odhams Press
• Relationship with Bottomley and John Bull
magazine was crucial in enabling the firm to develop
critical mass in production terms
• Elias’ skill as a manager in capitalising on new
opportunities and understanding of potential
customer needs
• Exploitation of advertising both within magazines
and more generally
• Printing heritage of the firm gave it advantages
when high speed photogravure emerged as a key
technology in 1930s
11