The Press: Newcomer

The flashy new magazine was the bestseller on British newsstands. It was sold out almost as soon as it appeared. For two shillings (28¢) a copy, Britons got their first taste of Topic, a 64-page, photogravured weekly newsmagazine edited by a Fleet Street veteran and underwritten by half a dozen millionaires.* But while the fine first-issue sale (150,000) was an auspicious sign, Topic may discover that to make a go of it in Britain, even six millionaires are not enough.

Widely advertised as a magazine that would "take the story beyond what may have been printed in the newspapers," Topic emerged mostly...