Publishing Industry England

Robert Maxwell's The European newspaper has been rescued by British investors who bought the money-losing English-language weekly for an undisclosed price, a court-appointed administrator announced Monday. Administrator Martin Fishman announced that the newspaper had been sold to a company controlled by David and Frederick Barclay.

In what promises to be a landmark libel case over Holocaust denial, Hitler biographer David Irving portrayed himself before Britain's High Court on Tuesday as a victim of an international Jewish conspiracy to blacken his reputation. The British historian, much criticized for his widely dismissed views that there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz and that Hitler did not authorize the extermination of Jews, rejected a U.S. professor's claim that he is a Holocaust denier.

Author Graham Greene has sent a flurry of excitement through the London literary world, not with a new novel but an indignant letter to the Times of London threatening to quit his longtime publisher. Greene's warning to Bodley Head reflects the anger of many writers who feel they have been given short shrift in what seemed to be an irreversible tide of corporate conglomeration within the British book business.

Of the 16 children's hardcovers that sold more than 300,000 copies last year, only three did not spring from Nickelodeon's "Blue's Clues," PBS' "Teletubbies," Disney's animated film "Mulan" or some other visual fare, according to Publishers Weekly. So it's a relief to note that one of the hottest children's books around, J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," started out as a book, and McDonald's offers no tie-ins.

Punch Magazine to Stop Publishing: After 150 years of tickling British readers with genteel satire and distinctive cartoons, Punch magazine has gone down for the count. Today, fewer and fewer readers are willing to pay for Punch, and the publisher's choice was to pull the plug as of April 8. Graham Wilson, managing director of United Newspapers, the parent company, said it could no longer absorb the magazine's losses, estimated at more than $1.7 million last year.

In the ongoing battle between tradition and modernity, chalk one up for tradition. At least, that's the way it looks now in the case of two British media organizations that tried to buck the national custom of publishing Sunday newspapers with separate staffs and separate identities from their "sister" six-day-a-week editions. The Sunday Telegraph and then the Independent on Sunday tried to follow the U.S.

In what promises to be a landmark libel case over Holocaust denial, Hitler biographer David Irving portrayed himself before Britain's High Court on Tuesday as a victim of an international Jewish conspiracy to blacken his reputation. The British historian, much criticized for his widely dismissed views that there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz and that Hitler did not authorize the extermination of Jews, rejected a U.S. professor's claim that he is a Holocaust denier.

Maxwell's Sons Accused: Mirror Group Newspapers alleged in court that the late Robert Maxwell's sons, Ian and Kevin Maxwell, were responsible for improperly taking $91 million from the media company. The allegation was made in support of a civil suit seeking to reclaim a total of $311 million, the bulk of it allegedly taken on the authority of the late publisher.

The uninitiated may understandably wonder what all the fuss is about. Here's novelist Anthony Burgess calling it "the greatest publishing event of the century." It is to be marked by a half-day seminar and lunch at that bluest of blue-blood London hostelries, Claridge's. The guest list of 250 dignitaries is a literary "Who's Who."

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch emerged victorious Friday from a long-running takeover battle after Scottish publisher William Collins PLC accepted his offer valuing the company at $721 million (403 million pounds). The Glasgow-based firm, which numbers Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev among its authors and the Bible among its publications, is one of Britain's biggest independent publishing companies.

John James Audubon, the American naturalist, is famous for his bird paintings. But who has ever heard of Sarah Stone or George Abbot? Stone and Abbot were among the earliest illustrators of America's wildlife. But for more than a century, they've been recognized by only a handful of specialists. The Natural History Museum in London, which has half a million works illustrating nature, is resurrecting the pair and other unfamiliar artists in a series of 11 projected books called "Art of Nature."

While few Americans have heard of the publishing house, Mills & Boon is a household name in Britain--as familiar to women as brand names of lipsticks. Indeed, Mills & Boon claims that eight out of 10 women have heard of the publishing house (but not necessarily any of its authors) because of the classically corny romantic fiction, rooted in traditional stereotypes: strong, masterful heroes; chaste, pliant heroines.

When the glossy magazine Hello! started up here, it wasn't given much of a chance by media mavens around town. All the journalistic omens seemed bad: Hello! was being launched in a deep recession; it was a somewhat old-fashioned picture magazine; the subjects were often obscure continental royalty or second-tier film celebrities, and the publisher was not even English. Recently, however, Hello! celebrated its fifth anniversary and, despite all odds, its weekly circulation has climbed to 500,000--enough that it is now being widely cited as a great contemporary publishing success.

Punch Magazine to Stop Publishing: After 150 years of tickling British readers with genteel satire and distinctive cartoons, Punch magazine has gone down for the count. Today, fewer and fewer readers are willing to pay for Punch, and the publisher's choice was to pull the plug as of April 8. Graham Wilson, managing director of United Newspapers, the parent company, said it could no longer absorb the magazine's losses, estimated at more than $1.7 million last year.

Not much has gone right for the British edition of Esquire magazine since its launch last year: Bursting onto the newsstands with all the hoopla that a big promo budget could muster--and a cover line that boasted "Special Collector's Edition"--it failed to ignite. Press critics and advertising executives complained that the men's monthly was unfocused, uninspired and, for a magazine that promised to reflect its new surroundings, un-British.

Robert Maxwell's The European newspaper has been rescued by British investors who bought the money-losing English-language weekly for an undisclosed price, a court-appointed administrator announced Monday. Administrator Martin Fishman announced that the newspaper had been sold to a company controlled by David and Frederick Barclay.

The gravy days for the Oxford University Press began, they say, in the 17th Century, after a competitor made a small mistake in the Bible he was printing. He left the "not" out of the Seventh Commandment--the one about adultery. A scandalized nation demanded better quality control over the Holy Book, and the Oxford press was one of the beneficiaries. It was named an official Bible printer of the realm.

Not much has gone right for the British edition of Esquire magazine since its launch last year: Bursting onto the newsstands with all the hoopla that a big promo budget could muster--and a cover line that boasted "Special Collector's Edition"--it failed to ignite. Press critics and advertising executives complained that the men's monthly was unfocused, uninspired and, for a magazine that promised to reflect its new surroundings, un-British.

In the latest blow to stability at the financially strapped New York Daily News, Kevin Maxwell resigned as publisher Monday, apparently overwhelmed by the task of containing the collapse of his late father's worldwide media empire. "The time he could put in here would not be adequate on a daily basis," Daily News spokesman John Campi said in explaining the 32-year-old scion's resignation.

Maxwell's Sons Accused: Mirror Group Newspapers alleged in court that the late Robert Maxwell's sons, Ian and Kevin Maxwell, were responsible for improperly taking $91 million from the media company. The allegation was made in support of a civil suit seeking to reclaim a total of $311 million, the bulk of it allegedly taken on the authority of the late publisher.