The
Morning Post was founded in 1772. Daniel Stuart purchased the
newspaper in 1795 and by employing writers such as Samuel
Coleridge, Robert Southey, William
Wordsworth and Charles Lamb, increased
its status and its circulation.
By 1855 there were ten newspapers published in London. The
Times, at sevenpence, was the most expensive and had a circulation
of 10,000. Its main rival, the Morning Post, cost fivepence.
Both these two papers were badly hit by the arrival of the one penny
Daily Telegraph.
In 1937 the Morning Post was purchased by Sir
James Berry, the owner of the Daily
Telegraph. Berry originally intended to publish it as a separate
newspaper but sales were so poor that the two papers were amalgamated
together.