quickly , in the words of Dr. Maginn , " head nurse of a hospital of
rickety newspaperlings , which breathe but to die,” — as his cap
tious critic characterized the string of Conservative papers of
which Watts was in charge about 1832. These , with the title and
leading articles set up , were printed in Fleet Street and the local news and local politics subsequently added in the country by the
local printers. This was apparently the origin of “ partly - printed newspapers." 5
It was not, however, until 1863 that the germ of the idea of Cave and of Watts took form in the largely amplified plan of William Saunders and Edward Spender for the organization of
the Central Press. They proposed to send daily to subscribing localpapers throughout the country eight columns of matter clas sified under twelve different heads ranging from “ topics of the day ” to literary and religious intelligence. The office when opened included an editorial staff, the members of which acquainted
themselves with the contents of the London, country, colonial, and foreign papers , and thus gave a complete service of general and foreign news. “ These arrangements," says Hunt, " admirable as they were , were not at first used to the extent thathad been expected.”
Perhaps an explanation may be found in a letter written at the time by James Macdonell, apropos of the sale of the Newcastle upon - Tyne Express, of which he was editor, to one of the pro prietors of the Central Press . He describes the London estab lishment " in which a staff of journalists prepare the news of the day, and write leaders on the principal current topics. The mat
ter thus obtained is put in type; then stereotyped three, four, or five times ; and then the blocks are sent by afternoon train to Plymouth, Hull, and other places in which the firm have papers of their own , or an arrangement for supplying the papers of others
with stereotyped matter.” He protests, however, that under such a system “ The Express will every morning be an exact copy of other journals, except in having one, two, or at most three SA. A . Watts, Alaric Watts, II, chap. XIV . W . Hunt, Then and Now , chap. VII, “ Co-Operation in Newspaper Work — The Central Press.” This gives in full the circular letter issued by the organizers.
