The Net Book Agreement (NBA) was a fixed book price agreement in the United Kingdom and Ireland between The Publishers Association and booksellers which set the prices at which books were to be sold to the public. The agreement was concerned solely with price maintenance. It operated in the UK from 1900 until the 1990s when it was abandoned by some large bookshop chains and was then ruled illegal. It also operated in Ireland until shortly before its final demise.
57-404: It came into effect on 1 January 1900 and involved retailers selling books at agreed prices. Any bookseller who sold a book at less than the agreed price would no longer be supplied by the publisher in question. In 1905, The Times tried but failed to challenge the agreement by setting up a low-cost book borrowing club. In 1905, following The Education Act , The Publishers Association introduced
114-476: A circulation of 150,000 in March 1914, due to a reduction in price. The Times had a circulation of 248,338 in 1958, a circulation of 408,300 in 1968, and a circulation of 295,863 in 1978. At the time of Harold Evans' appointment as editor in 1981, The Times had an average daily sale of 282,000 copies in comparison to the 1.4 million daily sales of its traditional rival, The Daily Telegraph . By 1988, The Times had
171-695: A circulation of 417,298 and The Sunday Times 712,291. In a 2009 national readership survey, The Times was found to have the highest number of ABC1 25–44 readers and the largest number of readers in London of any of the "quality" papers. Sister paper A sister paper is one of two or more newspapers which share a common owner, but are published with different content, different names, and sometimes (but not necessarily) in different geographical areas. Such an arrangement can offer economies of scale because staff and infrastructure can be shared. Formerly independent papers can become sister papers, as when
228-427: A circulation of 443,462. By November 2005, The Times sold an average of 691,283 copies per day, the second-highest of any British " quality " newspaper (after The Daily Telegraph , which had a circulation of 903,405 copies in the period), and the highest in terms of full-rate sales. By March 2014, average daily circulation of The Times had fallen to 394,448 copies, compared to The Daily Telegraph' s 523,048, with
285-531: A circulation of 5,000. Thomas Barnes was appointed general editor in 1817. In the same year, the paper's printer, James Lawson, died and passed the business onto his son, John Joseph Lawson (1802–1852). Under the editorship of Barnes and his successor in 1841, John Thadeus Delane , the influence of The Times rose to great heights, especially in politics and amongst the City of London . Peter Fraser and Edward Sterling were two noted journalists, and gained for The Times
342-449: A court hearing in a Tower Hamlets fostering case. In April 2019, culture secretary Jeremy Wright said he was minded to allow a request by News UK to relax the legal undertakings given in 1981 to maintain separate journalism resources for The Times and The Sunday Times . In 2019, IPSO upheld complaints against The Times over their article "GPS data shows container visited trafficking hotspot", and for three articles as part of
399-574: A forgery, The Times retracted the editorial of the previous year. In 1922, John Jacob Astor , son of the 1st Viscount Astor , bought The Times from the Northcliffe estate . The paper gained a measure of notoriety in the 1930s with its advocacy of German appeasement ; editor Geoffrey Dawson was closely allied with government supporters of appeasement, most notably Neville Chamberlain . Candid news reports by Norman Ebbut from Berlin that warned of Nazi warmongering were rewritten in London to support
456-579: A libel case they had brought against The Times newspaper. In June 2020, a report in The Times suggested that Cage and Begg were supporting a man who had been arrested in relation to a knife attack in Reading in which three men were murdered. The Times report also suggested that Cage and Begg were excusing the actions of the accused man by mentioning mistakes made by the police and others. In addition to paying damages, The Times printed an apology. Cage stated that
513-403: A new business venture. At that time, Henry Johnson invented the logography, a new typography that was reputedly faster and more precise (although three years later, it was proved less efficient than advertised). Walter bought the logography's patent and, with it, opened a printing house to produce books. The first publication of The Daily Universal Register was on 1 January 1785. Walter changed
570-468: A series on pollution in Britain's waterways: "No river safe for bathing," "Filthy Business," and "Behind the story." IPSO also upheld complaints in 2019 against articles headlined "Funding secret of scientists against hunt trophy ban," and "Britons lose out to rush of foreign medical students." In 2019, The Times published an article about Imam Abdullah Patel that wrongly claimed Patel had blamed Israel for
627-416: A simple strategy which meant that they were still sticking to the terms of the agreement: they deliberately defaced or damaged the book(s). The two methods most commonly used were to either use a hole punch to punch a hole in the cover of the book or to use a marker pen to mark the edge of the pages. The marker pen method was the most common as it took the least effort. The Publishers Association applied
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#1732859155471684-497: A variety of supplements. Beginning on 5 July 2003 (issue 67807) and ending after 17 January 2009 (issue 69535), Saturday issues of The Times came with a weekly magazine called TheKnowledge containing listings for the upcoming week (from that Saturday to the next Friday) compiled by PA Arts & Leisure (part of Press Association Ltd ). Its taglines include "Your pocket guide to what's on in London", "The World's Greatest City, Cut Down To Size", and "Your critical guide to
741-473: Is included in the newspaper on Mondays, and details all the weekend's football activity ( Premier League and Football League Championship , League One and League Two. ) The Scottish edition of The Game also includes results and analysis from Scottish Premier League games. During the FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euros, there is a daily supplement of The Game. The Saturday edition of The Times contains
798-634: Is of national scope and distribution. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The Times had an average daily circulation of 365,880 in March 2020; in the same period, The Sunday Times had an average weekly circulation of 647,622. The two newspapers also had 304,000 digital-only paid subscribers as of June 2019. An American edition of The Times has been published since 6 June 2006. Due to its widespread availability in libraries and its comprehensive index, The Times has received considerable use from academics and researchers. A complete historical file of
855-580: The Encyclopædia Britannica using aggressive American marketing methods introduced by Horace Everett Hooper and his advertising executive, Henry Haxton. Due to legal fights between the Britannica's two owners, Hooper and Walter Montgomery Jackson , The Times severed its connection in 1908 and was bought by pioneering newspaper magnate , Alfred Harmsworth , later Lord Northcliffe. In editorials published on 29 and 31 July 1914, Wickham Steed ,
912-529: The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post were both purchased by News Corporation . Concerns have sometimes been raised about such media consolidation resulting in less diversity of ideas, less competition in the newspaper business, or unfair competition . Conversely, a single newspaper company can start several publications. By doing so, it can serve different markets, or different audiences in
969-584: The Independent Press Standards Organisation and sued The Times for libel. In 2020, The Times issued an apology, amended its article, and agreed to pay Choudhury damages and legal costs. Choudhury's solicitor, Nishtar Saleem, said, "This is another example of irresponsible journalism. Publishing sensational excerpts on a 'free site' while concealing the full article behind a paywall is a dangerous game". In December 2020, Cage and Moazzam Begg received damages of £30,000 plus costs in
1026-488: The London 2012 Olympics and the issuing of a series of souvenir front covers, The Times added the suffix "of London" to its masthead. In March 2016, the paper dropped its rolling digital coverage for a series of 'editions' of the paper at 9am, midday, and 5pm on weekdays. The change also saw a redesign of the paper's app for smartphones and tablets. In April 2018, IPSO upheld a complaint against The Times for its report of
1083-608: The Times's Chief Editor, argued that the British Empire should enter World War I . On 8 May 1920, also under the editorship of Steed , The Times , in an editorial, endorsed the anti-Semitic fabrication The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion as a genuine document, and called Jews the world's greatest danger. In the leader entitled "The Jewish Peril, a Disturbing Pamphlet: Call for Inquiry", Steed wrote about The Protocols of
1140-484: The 2003 murder of a British police officer by a terror suspect in Manchester. The story also wrongly claimed that Patel ran a primary school that had been criticised by Ofsted for segregating parents at events, which Ofsted said was contrary to "British democratic principles." The Times settled Patel's defamation claim by issuing an apology and offering to pay damages and legal costs. Patel's solicitor, Zillur Rahman, said
1197-638: The Communists, leading Winston Churchill to condemn him and the article in a speech to the House of Commons. As a result of Carr's editorial, The Times became popularly known during that stage of World War II as "the threepenny Daily Worker " (the price of the Communist Party's Daily Worker being one penny). On 3 May 1966, it resumed printing news on the front page; previously, the front page had been given over to small advertisements, usually of interest to
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#17328591554711254-552: The Elders of Zion : What are these 'Protocols'? Are they authentic? If so, what malevolent assembly concocted these plans and gloated over their exposition? Are they forgery? If so, whence comes the uncanny note of prophecy, prophecy in part fulfilled, in part so far gone in the way of fulfillment?". The following year, when Philip Graves , the Constantinople (modern Istanbul ) correspondent of The Times , exposed The Protocols as
1311-896: The NBA in the Republic of Ireland until 1992, after the Competition Act 1991 came into force. In June 1994 Ireland's Competition Authority refused to license the NBA, on the grounds that UK publishers' market share was high enough for the NPA to distort competition in Ireland. In the UK in August 1994 the Director General of the Office of Fair Trading decided that the Restrictive Practices Court should review
1368-579: The Year in 2005 and Nadiya Hussain , winner of The Great British Bake Off . The Times and The Sunday Times have had an online presence since 1996, originally at the-times.co.uk and sunday-times.co.uk , and later at timesonline.co.uk . There are now two websites: thetimes.co.uk is aimed at daily readers, and the thesundaytimes.co.uk site provides weekly magazine-like content. There are also iPad and Android editions of both newspapers. Since July 2010, News UK has required readers who do not subscribe to
1425-592: The agreement. In September 1995 several major publishers (including HarperCollins and Random House ) withdrew, and in September 1996 the Booksellers Association decided to take no part in the case. In March 1997 the Restrictive Practices Court ruled that the Net Book Agreement was against the public interest and therefore illegal. The adoption of this new procurement discipline by academic libraries since
1482-595: The appeasement policy. Kim Philby , a double agent with primary allegiance to the Soviet Union , was a correspondent for the newspaper in Spain during the Spanish Civil War of the late 1930s. Philby was admired for his courage in obtaining high-quality reporting from the front lines of the bloody conflict. He later joined British Military Intelligence ( MI6 ) during World War II , was promoted into senior positions after
1539-453: The case "highlights the shocking level of journalism to which the Muslim community are often subject". In 2019, The Times published an article titled "Female Circumcision is like clipping a nail, claimed speaker". The article featured a photo of Sultan Choudhury beside the headline, leading some readers to incorrectly infer that Choudhury had made the comment. Choudhury lodged a complaint with
1596-453: The competition. However, market concentration and a demise of independent bookshops also took place in economies such as Germany and France where a fixed book price agreement is still in place. The loss in business was smaller than predicted by many commentators. The number of titles published in the UK briefly increased when the NBA was dissolved in 1997; the volume of books sold in the UK increased temporarily by about 30% compared to 1995, but
1653-545: The cultural week". These supplements were relaunched on 24 January 2009 as: Sport , Saturday Review (arts, books, TV listings, and ideas), Weekend (including travel and lifestyle features), Playlist (an entertainment listings guide), and The Times Magazine (columns on various topics). The Times Magazine features columns touching on various subjects such as celebrities, fashion and beauty, food and drink, homes and gardens, or simply writers' anecdotes. Notable contributors include Giles Coren , Food and Drink Writer of
1710-406: The damages amount would be used to "expose state-sponsored Islamophobia and those complicit with it in the press. ... The Murdoch press empire has actively supported xenophobic elements and undermined principles of open society and accountability. ... We will continue to shine a light on war criminals and torture apologists and press barons who fan the flames of hate". The Times features news for
1767-504: The demise of the NBA is the focus of "Managing suppliers for collection development: the UK higher education perspective." The collapse of the Agreement strengthened large bookstore chains and reduced book prices. It also paved the way for the large supermarket chains to take a chunk of the book business, typically offering a small number of best-selling titles at deeply discounted prices. As of 2009, 500 independent bookshops had closed since
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1824-539: The demise of the agreement. An early example of the changes in the book publishing markets following the termination of the agreement was the entry of the US-owned booksellers Borders into the British high street, following their purchase of Books Etc , but the failure of the changes was demonstrated by the rapid bankruptcy of Borders, as the supermarkets rapidly dominated the market with loss-leading price discounting, wiping out
1881-410: The digitised paper, up to 2019, is available online from Gale Cengage Learning. The Times was founded by publisher John Walter (1738–1812) on 1 January 1785 as The Daily Universal Register, with Walter in the role of editor. Walter had lost his job by the end of 1784 after the insurance company for which he worked went bankrupt due to losses from a Jamaican hurricane. Unemployed, Walter began
1938-405: The fields of politics, science, literature, and the arts to build its reputation. For much of its early life, the profits of The Times were very large and the competition minimal, so it could pay far better than its rivals for information or writers. Beginning in 1814, the paper was printed on the new steam-driven cylinder press developed by Friedrich Koenig (1774–1833). In 1815, The Times had
1995-480: The first half of the paper; the Opinion/Comment section begins after the first news section, with world news normally following this. The Register, which contains obituaries, a Court & Social section, and related material, follows the business pages on the centre spread. The sports section is at the end of the main paper. The Times ' main supplement, every day, is times2 , featuring various columns. It
2052-524: The management to shut down the paper for nearly a year, from 1 December 1978 to 12 November 1979. The Thomson Corporation management was struggling to run the business due to the 1979 energy crisis and union demands. Management sought a buyer who was in a position to guarantee the survival of both titles, had the resources, and was committed to funding the introduction of modern printing methods. Several suitors appeared, including Robert Maxwell , Tiny Rowland and Lord Rothermere ; however, only one buyer
2109-526: The moneyed classes in British society. Also in 1966, the Royal Arms , which had been a feature of the newspaper's masthead since its inception, was abandoned. In the same year, members of the Astor family sold the paper to Canadian publishing magnate Roy Thomson . His Thomson Corporation brought it under the same ownership as The Sunday Times to form Times Newspapers Limited . An industrial dispute prompted
2166-457: The news, Murdoch stated that the law and the independent board prevented him from exercising editorial control. In May 2008, printing of The Times switched from Wapping to new plants at Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire, and Merseyside and Glasgow , enabling the paper to be produced with full colour on every page for the first time. On 26 July 2012, to coincide with the official start of
2223-494: The number of digital subscribers at around 400,000, and ranked The Times as having the sixth highest trust rating out of 13 different outlets polled. The Times Digital Archive is available by subscription. The Times has had the following eight owners since its foundation in 1785: The Times had a circulation of 70,405 on 5 September 1870, due to a reduction in price and the Franco-Prussian War . The Times had
2280-407: The political position of The Times is considered to be centre-right . The Times was the first newspaper to bear that name, inspiring numerous other papers around the world, such as The Times of India and The New York Times . In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is often referred to as The London Times or The Times of London , although the newspaper
2337-440: The pompous/satirical nickname 'The Thunderer' (from "We thundered out the other day an article on social and political reform."). The increased circulation and influence of the paper were based in part to its early adoption of the steam-driven rotary printing press. Distribution via steam trains to rapidly growing concentrations of urban populations helped ensure the profitability of the paper and its growing influence. The Times
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2394-494: The practice of deeming school books 'non-net' allowing schools discounts that were not available on other books. There were also agreements in place to allow public libraries to receive discounts of up to 5% on the net books they purchased. In 1962 the Net Book Agreement was examined by the Restrictive Practices Court , which decided that the NBA was of benefit to the industry, since it enabled publishers to subsidise
2451-471: The practice of printing correspondents' full postal addresses. Published letters were long regarded as one of the paper's key constituents. According to its leading article "From Our Own Correspondents," the reason for the removal of full postal addresses was to fit more letters onto the page. In a 2007 meeting with the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications, which was investigating media ownership and
2508-451: The print edition to pay £2 per week to read The Times and The Sunday Times online. Visits to the websites have decreased by 87% since the paywall was introduced, from 21 million unique users per month to 2.7 million. In April 2009, the timesonline site had a readership of 750,000 readers per day. In October 2011, there were around 111,000 subscribers to The Times ' digital products. A Reuters Institute survey in 2021 put
2565-499: The printing of the works of important but less widely read authors using money from bestsellers. In 1991 the large bookshop chain Dillons , followed by Waterstones , began to offer some books at a discount. As the agreement did not cover books that were damaged (or second hand), shops that wished to sell "new" books below cover price for any reason (for example to get rid of obsolete stock or titles that were not otherwise selling) adopted
2622-588: The retail prices collapsed. The Times Defunct The Times is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register , adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times (founded in 1821), are published by Times Media, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK , in turn wholly owned by News Corp . The Times and The Sunday Times , which do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have had common ownership only since 1966. In general,
2679-497: The shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 in July 1988. He wrote in detail about his reasons for resigning from the paper due to meddling with his stories, and the paper's pro-Israel stance. In June 1990, The Times ceased its policy of using courtesy titles ("Mr", "Mrs", or "Miss" prefixes) for living persons before full names on the first reference, but it continues to use them before surnames on subsequent references. In 1992, it accepted
2736-572: The title after 940 editions on 1 January 1788 to The Times . In 1803, Walter handed ownership and editorship to his son of the same name. Walter Sr's pioneering efforts to obtain Continental news, especially from France, helped build the paper's reputation among policy makers and financiers, in spite of a sixteen-month incarceration in Newgate Prison for libels printed in The Times . The Times used contributions from significant figures in
2793-657: The two retaining respectively the second-highest and highest circulations among British "quality" newspapers. In contrast, The Sun , the highest-selling "tabloid" daily newspaper in the United Kingdom, sold an average of 2,069,809 copies in March 2014, and the Daily Mail , the highest-selling "middle market" British daily newspaper, sold an average of 1,708,006 copies in the period. The Sunday Times has significantly higher circulation than The Times , and sometimes outsells The Sunday Telegraph . In January 2019, The Times had
2850-486: The two titles. The Royal Arms were reintroduced to the masthead at about this time, but whereas previously it had been that of the reigning monarch, it would now be that of the House of Hanover , who were on the throne when the newspaper was founded. After 14 years as editor, William Rees-Mogg resigned upon completion of the change of ownership. Murdoch began to make his mark on the paper by appointing Harold Evans as his replacement. One of his most important changes
2907-493: The use of "Ms" for unmarried women "if they express a preference." In November 2003, News International began producing the newspaper in both broadsheet and tabloid sizes. Over the next year, the broadsheet edition was withdrawn from Northern Ireland , Scotland , and the West Country . Since 1 November 2004, the paper has been printed solely in tabloid format. On 6 June 2005, The Times redesigned its Letters page, dropping
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#17328591554712964-569: The war ended, and defected to the Soviet Union when discovery was inevitable in 1963. Between 1941 and 1946, the left-wing British historian E. H. Carr was assistant editor. Carr was well known for the strongly pro-Soviet tone of his editorials. In December 1944, when fighting broke out in Athens between the Greek Communist ELAS and the British Army, Carr in a Times leader sided with
3021-475: Was discontinued in early March 2010, but reintroduced on 12 October 2010 after discontinuation was criticised. Its regular features include a puzzles section called Mind Games . Its previous incarnation began on 5 September 2005, before which it was called T2 and previously Times 2 . The supplement contains arts and lifestyle features, TV and radio listings, and theatre reviews. The newspaper employs Richard Morrison as its classical music critic. The Game
3078-521: Was in a position to meet the full Thomson remit, Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch . Robert Holmes à Court , another Australian magnate, had previously tried to buy The Times in 1980. In 1981, The Times and The Sunday Times were bought from Thomson by Rupert Murdoch's News International . The acquisition followed three weeks of intensive bargaining with the unions by company negotiators John Collier and Bill O'Neill . Murdoch gave legal undertakings to maintain separate journalism resources for
3135-523: Was one of the first newspapers to send war correspondents to cover particular conflicts. William Howard Russell , the paper's correspondent with the army in the Crimean War , was immensely influential with his dispatches back to England. The Times faced financial failure in 1890 under Arthur Fraser Walter , but it was rescued by an energetic editor, Charles Frederic Moberly Bell . During his tenure (1890–1911), The Times became associated with selling
3192-506: Was still not achieved, and this was to remain an interim measure until the Wapping dispute of 1986, when The Times moved from New Printing House Square in Gray's Inn Road (near Fleet Street ) to new offices in Wapping . Robert Fisk , seven times British International Journalist of the Year, resigned as foreign correspondent in 1988 over what he saw as "political censorship" of his article on
3249-516: Was the introduction of new technology and efficiency measures. Between March 1981 and May 1982, following agreement with print unions, the hot-metal Linotype printing process used to print The Times since the 19th century was phased out and replaced by computer input and photocomposition. The Times and the Sunday Times were able to reduce their print room staff by half as a result. However, direct input of text by journalists ("single-stroke" input)
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