Hale, Ann M. (2019) Business matters: legal structures, roles, people, and places of the nineteenth-century press - a case study of George Newnes Limited. PhD thesis, University of Greenwich.

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Abstract

This thesis breaks new ground in the study of nineteenth-century print culture, periodical studies, and media studies by drawing attention to the mutability of the legal structures underpinning the press. It adopts a multi-dimensional, chronotopic, geospatial approach to legal frameworks that emphasizes participation, rather than power or control. Three legal structures are addressed: sole proprietorships, partnerships, and limited companies. A multi-chapter case study of the three “new structural moments” in George Newnes’s enterprise in the 1880s and 1890s recovers previously unrecognised roles, people, networks, and places associated with the nineteenth-century press.

Chapter 1 provides an overview of previous scholarship on the relationship between business and the press, establishes the significance of Bakhtin’s literary chronotope, and discusses how a multi-dimensional approach to legal frameworks augments Robert Darnton’s “communication’s circuit” and Linda K. Hughes’s “sideways” approach to print culture.

Chapter 2 introduces legal frameworks and their significance. Three business models are discussed - sole proprietorships, partnerships, and companies (unlimited and limited). The first decade of George Newnes’s publishing enterprise serves as an example of a sole proprietorship. Partnerships are explored in a case study of Household Words and All the Year Round. Finally, a case study of the National Magazine Company (Limited) illustrates the limited company structure, its associated roles, and the geographic diffusion of ownership and control.

Chapter 3 is the first in a four-chapter case study of George Newnes Limited, changes to the legal frameworks underpinning it, and shifts in its ownership during the 1880s and 1890s. The chapter uses business-specific narratives circulated by Newnes’s publications as a guide for accounting for the enterprise’s three “new structural moments” in the 1880s and 1890s.

Chapter 4 focuses on parallels between Newnes’s style of participatory journalism and the approach used to form George Newnes Limited in 1891. It also considers risk, such as hazards associated with participatory journalism, as a possible motivation for structural choice or change.

Chapter 5 introduces the methodologies and workflows used to account for, map, and trace changes in the ownership of George Newnes Limited in 1891 and 1897. It discusses some of the previously unrecognised people and places associated with the enterprise and, by implication, the periodical press.

Chapter 6, the final chapter in the George Newnes Limited case study, explores in greater depth the identities of some of the visible and invisible individuals who participated in the ownership of George Newnes Limited in 1891 and 1897. An emphasis is placed on the biographies of select shareholders representing demographic and geographic cohorts within the ownership communities. I also point to opportunities for future research. The concluding chapter of the thesis, Chapter 7, summarises key findings.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	19th century press, nineteenth century press, George Newnes Limited, participatory journalism,
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences > School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Last Modified:	17 Dec 2025 11:30
URI:	https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/51998

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