CALCULATION, CELEBRITY AND SCANDAL.

This article seeks to contribute to the study of the early twentieth-century English provincial press by examining the ways in which the newspapers in one English town, Wolverhampton, covered the arrest, prosecution and acquittal of a well-known local businessman for the murder of his mistress. It shows that the papers in the town adopted a number of the strategies which are associated most often with the sensationalism of the national, popular press. It suggests therefore that Wolverhampton's newspapers—and possibly provincial newspapers more generally—were prepared to personalise, to denounce and to celebrate in their efforts to remain competitive in the face of the political, technological and commercial challenges which confronted them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]