The Press: The Collector

Q. Why do you want to buy more papers?

A. To make more money.

Q. Why do you want to make more money?

A. To buy more papers.

In the 27 years since he laid acquisitive hands on a wan northern Canadian weekly called the Timmins Press, Toronto-born Roy Herbert Thomson, 67, has collected 93 newspapers, more than anyone else in the world. This year Newspaper Collector Thomson branched out into magazine buying, was just about to close a deal for a big British periodical publishing house, Odhams Press Ltd. (200 magazines, newspapers, trade and technical journals and annual directories), when Press Lord Cecil Harmsworth King beat him to the checkbook (TIME, Feb. 24). Annoyed but undaunted, Thomson sat on his millions, waiting for another chance. Last week it came. For a mere $3,920,000, Roy Thomson bought six British magazines that King might well have wanted for himself.

With Aplomb. Thomson's buy was a bargain. It gave him control of Illustrated Newspapers Ltd.—half a dozen successful and prestigious magazines, among them the glossy Tatler (circ. 60,000), the Sphere (50,000) and the 119-year-old Illustrated London News (79,000)—and the deal was conducted with the usual Thomson aplomb. As he prowled about Britain looking for properties to buy, Thomson crossed the path of the group's proprietor, Sir John Reeves Ellerman, 51, a recluse so unsociable that he has been photographed only three times in 30 years. An indefatigable voyager, Sir John usually travels incognito, often signing on as seaman on one of his own merchant ships. For all his eccentricities, he has demonstrated a remarkable affinity for money, has swelled to $280 million the $81 million shipping fortune he inherited in 1933. Among the vast Ellerman holdings: breweries, real estate—and the largest single share in Cecil King's mammoth Daily Mirror group (15%-20%; there is no majority stockholder). "I wanted responsibility, and they simply wanted a good investment," says Thomson of the negotiations with the Illustrated group, which left Ellerman with a sizable dividend-bearing interest in the organization. "Now they have the investment and I have the responsibility."

More Than a Rich Sport. This quick action was typical of a newcomer who, since invading England in 1959, has kept Fleet Street jumping. Thomson picked up dozens of newspapers of all sorts, from Scotland's Caithness Courier (circ. 6,000) to England's big Kemsley chain. Editors and publishers goggled at the sight of the gregarious Canuck who told risque stories in a deliberate and successful effort to crack the British reserve, and rode in a chauffeur-driven Cadillac to the subway tube—to be met at the other end by a chauffeur-driven Rolls.

But Thomson soon gave evidence that he was much more than just a rich sport. He pruned out two sensational papers, has beefed up the austere Sunday Times without impairing its stateliness. Under Thomson, the Sunday Times circulation has risen nearly 140,000 to 1,022.913—sending it far ahead of Britain's other big quality Sunday paper, the Observer (727,964). Eventually, Thomson intends to convert the Sunday Time?, into something resembling the hefty Sunday papers that hit U.S. front porches. Early next year, for example, the paper will add a 4O-page, four-color illustrated magazine.