new national daily newspaper, to be
called The Daily News. This was the
purest journalism, direct control of a
great newspaper. He accepted the post,
with the understanding that his
editorial control would not be
challenged. His association with the
News, however, was brief. He spent
November and December 1845
organising the paper, and the first
edition appeared on 21 January 1846.
By 9 February Dickens had written his
letter of resignation. It is usually argued
that he temperamentally unsuited to
the business of daily newspaper
editing, but the reason Dickens himself
gave for leaving was the old one of
interference in his editorial control. "I
consider," he wrote at the time, "that
[Bradbury's] interposition between me
and almost every act of mine at the
newspaper office, was as disrespectful
to me as injurious to the enterprise"13.
It seems that once again Dickens had
attempted editing, and had once again
been badly burnt. But once again, his
enthusiasm for the idea of editorship
was undimmed. Within a few months
he was again writing to Forster,
proposing a new review - "a kind of
Spectator (Addison's) - very cheap and
pretty frequent ...It would be a great
thing to found something"14. The idea
remained in his head over the
following years, and he maintained
links with journalism. In 1848 Forster
took over editorship of the Examiner,
and asked Dickens to write articles and
reviews for the paper. Dickens
contributed regularly over the
following two years, up until the
founding of his next journalistic project,
Household Words.
This time he attempted once more to
ensure complete editorial control for
himself. By the time he was committed
to editing Household Words, he had
guaranteed himself ownership of 50%
of the journal, with his agents
controlling another 25%, leaving the
publishers only a quarter share. In 1856
he modified this agreement, giving
himself even more control. This subject
of 'control' became something of an
obsession: he saw to it that the journal
was popularly associated as closely as
possible with himself. The epigraph
"Conducted by Charles Dickens" was
prominently displayed underneath the
title. Although contributions were
supposed to be anonymous - a fact
other, often very famous contributors
had to put up with - occasional
authorship was indicated by the initials
"CD", or "The Conductor of this
journal". He even, at one time,
considered calling the magazine Charles
Dickens.
Household Words was a tremendous
success, and continued for nine years
enjoying buoyant circulation; but
Dickens' near-obsession with absolute
37
Tir\*i\ i-u klv-t>> non.'m. nn i.«n\ m».«
A Cartoon poking fun at the rivalry between the
Daily News and the established 'Dailies'
