A little something that is a hint to the longer project I've been working on.
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Anglo-American plc is an
American-
Commonwealth mass media and
broadcasting company with operations around the world but located primarily in the Commonwealth and the United States. The company is headquartered and listed in
London with a secondary listing in
New York. It was formed in 1908 as
Anglo-American Newspapers Limited, amalgamating the pre-existing newspaper properties,
The Times,
The New York Times and
The Observer and has since expanded to include major broadcasting networks and other newspapers.
The origins of the company lie in the personal and political reversals of
William Waldorf Astor in the late 19th century. When he lost an election for the
US Senate in
1881, Astor found his political failure to be regular fodder for gossip columns and negative press coverage. This was then compounded by a public feud with his aunt,
Lina Astor, from 1890. In 1891, Astor purchased
The New York Times from the estate of former owner
George Jones and used it in an attempt to improve his reputation. This attempt proved unsuccessful and Astor left New York in 1892, settling in London.
Despite his move, Astor retained an interest in his growing media empire, supplementing it with the purchase of
The Pall Mall Gazette in 1893,
The Observer in 1905 and
The Times in 1908. Upon the purchase of the last title, Astor amalgamated
The Observer and his two ‘
Times’ titles into one called
The Anglo-American Times (Monday-Saturday) and
The Anglo-American Observer (Sunday). Under his tenure, this flagship title became the most prestigious news organisation of its day on both sides of the
Atlantic. Its pro-American stance is credited with both shoring up support for
American entry into the
Great War in 1913 and
British intervention on the side of the Allies in 1917.
Astor died in 1919 and the business would be taken over by his sons
Waldorf and
John Jacob. Over the next two decades, the company expanded its newspaper holdings, buying newspapers in
Canada and
Australia. The more high-brow ‘
broadsheet’ newspapers would then find themselves folded into the
Times and
Observer titles while the lower-brow ‘
tabloids’ would be allowed to retain their names and corporate identities. This led to allegations of sharp business practice, with many journalists finding their newspapers bought only to then be sacked and replaced by Astor appointees. Nevertheless, by the outbreak of the
World War, the company was the largest media empire in the world, rivalled only by the
CBC.
In the postwar period, the company was quick to identify the growing medium of television.
ITV was founded in 1954 as a commercial television organisation with various media franchises around the Commonwealth. In 1962, the company purchased the largest number of shares when the
American government privatised the
National Broadcasting Company. In 1986, they
completed the takeover of NBC and brought it private.
As of 2020, Anglo-American plc is a holding company still majority owned by the
Astor family. Current chairman,
Lord Astor, is the fourth generation of his family to head the company. It is headquartered in London with major offices in New York,
Chicago,
Philadelphia,
Los Angeles,
Karachi,
Nairobi and
Sydney. Its operations are divided between television, online and newspapers. NBC is one of the United States
three national cable channels and ITV is the largest
private television and media channel in the Commonwealth.
The company operates nine newspapers in addition to the flagship
Anglo-American Times and
Anglo-American Observer titles. Of these, one,
The Free Press, is an online-only publication (since 2013) and one,
The Pall Mall Gazette, is distributed free both online and in print. All the others have online subscription schemes in addition to print publications. All have significant online footprints with a number, including the
Pall Mall Gazette,
The Daily Telegraph and
The New York Post, having significant international following outside of their traditional publication areas (London, Sydney and New York, respectively).
The Anglo-American Times and
The Anglo-American Observer, commonly referred to simply as “
The Times” and “
The Observer,” respectively, are among the most prestigious and well known newspapers in the world. They have an estimated 14,500,000 online subscribers as well as a daily print circulation of over 1,000,000.
In addition, the company produces the weekly
Anglo-American Review of Books (AARB), which publishes longer form essays on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Beginning publication in 1963, as a successor to various literary supplements in other Anglo-American publications, the AARB has been described as one of the most prestigious and well known reviews in the world, with a circulation of nearly 250,000 per issue.
Since its creation,
The Times and
The Observer have observed strict neutrality rules and have not formally endorsed a political party or individual politicians. However, critics have pointed out that the publications have adopted political positions, from taking a bellicose attitude towards Germany in 1913, support for left wing economic policies (both
Soviet market socialism and
Progressive New Deal programs) in the 1940s and 1950s and opposition to the
Commonwealth’s departure from NATO in the 1960s. Because of the paper’s history and prestige, it is often thought of as having close connections with the American and Commonwealth political, cultural, religious and business establishment.
The company’s other titles have made open declarations of political support: it’s primary British tabloid,
The Daily Herald, has traditionally taken a pro-trades union stance while
The New York Post has adopted pro-
Republican stances (albeit in both cases with occasions of support for the
Liberals or the Progressives). The tone of the AARB has been described as “consistently radical.”
Alongside its various publications and businesses, the company is known for its
cosmopolitan and
internationalist corporate culture. This has been satirised on many occasions, most notably in the NBC sitcom
30 Rock (2006-2013) in the relationship between the American writer
Liz Lemon (
Tina Fey) and the Anglo-Irish executive
Jack Donaghy (
Pierce Brosnan).
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