Prologue
Hello and welcome! This is my first proper timeline covering an actual narrative, and it is my first timeline in general in 3 or 4 years. I'm highly confident that I've matured and improved over those years to make a riveting, and diverse story. The narrative of this timeline comes from the creation of an early competitor to the BBC decades before ITV came to be. So sit back, and I hope you enjoy my first foray into an actual narrative timeline.
Breaking News – Chapter 1
A News Timeline by Aces California
Edward Lloyd – Founder of the Daily Chronicle
Before the 1870s, Edward Lloyd; the third son of an impoverish family, always had ambitions of publishing, including his self-hated fictional short stories published between the 1830s and the 1850s.
After many attempts at self-publishing; penny dreadfuls, clear to day plagiarism, and tiny publications with equally tiny circulation, in 1876, Edward bought out the local
Clerkenwell News and London Daily Chronicle newspaper for a total of over £180,000. Remodelled to become a national newspaper and renamed to the Daily Chronicle, it entered London's circulation the following year without warning. Valued initially for it's content from the beginning, Lloyd's steadfast belief in objective reporting of facts, unadorned by comment or speculation, led to the paper growing in popularity, and leading the way in news print; eventually hiring special correspondents for specific stories and reporting on news from the wide colonies of the British Empire.
Come the 1890s, the Daily Chronicle under Edward Lloyd and his editor Robert Boyle, a prominent Irish journalist, had grew in reputation becoming arguably the best selling daily newspaper in the country. However, at the front end of 1890 the newspaper was struck by two huge losses. In February, the newspaper lost it's editor, Robert Boyle, and in April it was Edward Lloyd's time. Towards the end of his life, Edward called upon his son, Frank Lloyd, to become the owner of the newspaper on his death. when Edward Lloyd's passing finally arrived at 75 years old, Frank became the new owner of the Daily Chronicle. The new editor, Alfred Fletcher, hired before Edward's death, took the inexperienced son of his deceased boss under his wing. Since then, multiple editors have passed until the story picks up again; the newspaper being passed from Fletcher to Henry Massingham, and William Fletcher, before William Fletcher passed the newspaper down to Robert Donald. Robert was an editor who stood for everything the Lloyd family stood for; thoughtful, principled, and objective news, and championing of the warrants of editorial independence. A perfect fit for the newspaper.
With the newspaper entering into the new century with a great and stable reputation, and with Frank Lloyd still owning the newspaper, Robert Donald editing it, business continued to progress quickly, until a series of misunderstandings would place the paper, Robert, and Frank against the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in one of the most turbulent times for the country.
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