The Press: No Scoop

A tycoon intent on cementing his friendship with the Press could take no more tactful and effective course than to offer substantial prizes for good work by the Press. The donor asks no specific return for the compliment, but since the prize is named for him he is assured good publicity.

Year ago Harry Gordon Selfridge, U. S.-born London drygoods tycoon, established the Selfridge Awards ($2,500) for British newsmen, comparable to the U. S. Pulitzer prizes. Fortnight ago the 1932 winners were announced by the awards committee, headed by George Allardice Riddell, Lord Riddell, publisher of News of the World and chairman of Britain's Newspaper Proprietors' Association.

For the best descriptive reporting went $250 each to thin-lipped D. F. Boyd of the Manchester Guardian ("A Trip to Russia") and wavy-haired Cecil Thompson of the Express ("Thousands Cheer a Dog"). For foreign correspondence: $250 each to bespectacled Gault Macgowan of the Times ("Devil's Isle") and Sir Percival Phillips of the Daily Mail ("Gandhi's Bill"). There were prizes for the best industrial reporting (Manchester Guardian) and the best photography (Daily Sketch, Scotsman). But for "the best exclusive news story (colloquially termed a 'scoop')" no award was made.

Said the committee: "[It does not appear that] any newspaper in Great Britain has had the good fortune during the last twelve months to print a first class 'scoop'." The $500 "scoop" prize money was set aside for six months in hope that some worthy claimant might arise.

In World's Press News, tradepaper of British journalism, unkempt Hannen Swaffer, dramatic critic of the Daily Herald, protested (tongue-in-cheek) the committee's judgment. Said he: "The most remarkable news scoop of last year was the series of front-page articles printed during the crisis of last August when the political correspondent of the Daily Herald stated, day by day, everything that was happening, whereas nobody else got one word of inside fact. . . . Really I think these prizes should be stopped. . . . Give the money to the pressagents."