Making the News: Votes for Women and the mainstream press.

This article contextualizes the manner in which the newspaper "Votes for Women" evolved to challenge and compete with the press prior to 1912, within a discussion of the Women's Social and Political Union's (WSPU) wider press strategy. The populist style may simply have been considered the most appropriate means of conveying news of the militant campaign's sensational activities; new methods of protest necessitating new means of communication. However, viewed within the wider context of the WSPU's activities, the paper's populism should be considered a deliberate part of an organizational press strategy. The attempts to attract, and subsequently influence and critique, news coverage indicated the Union's press-aware outlook. With this cognizance sharpened by intensifying press hostility to militancy, Votes for Women's populist format, together with its efforts for mass-circulation, signaled an effort to confront apparent press prejudice by marketing an alternative source of suffrage news to a large audience.