Reynolds News was a radical weekly newspaper published from 1850-1967. Founded by prolific popular author and Chartist G.M.W. Reynolds, the paper later passed from family ownership to the National Co-operative Press. It changed its name several times, ending up as The Sunday Citizen. Find out more about Reynolds News, its name changes, and the story of the set at Bradford University on the collection web page.
Reynolds News is significant for historians because it offers an alternative to papers of record, such as The Times. It was politically radical and aimed at working class readers. Contents were often sensational, featuring plenty of glamour, sex, crime, and sport, alongside thoughtful pieces about politics and ideas. Well-known authors and thinkers contributed, notably J.B. Priestley, who wrote over fifty articles and book reviews for the paper.
Unfortunately, as usual with historic newspapers, our set is in very poor condition. Even the conserved volumes cannot stand much handling. This is frustrating because the rich and relatively underused content cannot be easily shared with readers. Furthermore, the paper is not indexed. We are delighted that the British Library digitised the 19th century volumes of Reynolds in its British Newspapers programme, making them searchable and really usable for the first time in their long lives.