Who killed the News Chronicle?

Abstract

At a time when chocolate lovers are mourning the loss of Cadbury to the American giant Kraft, York Membery recalls another Cadbury sale 50 years ago when the much-loved and liberally minded News Chronicle was sold without warning by proprietor Laurence Cadbury to its mid-market rival Daily Mail. In a series of interviews with former Chronicle reporters, Membery vividly describes the anger, frustration and bitter disappointment that a paper selling 1.2 million copies should be so brutally closed down. In uncanny echoes of the crisis facing many papers today, he describes the financial crisis besetting the newspaper as well as the owner’s manifest lack of commitment.