Founded in 1880 by Mr H. Hucks Gibbs (afterwards Lord Aldenham), for Mr Frederick Greenwood to edit when he had left the Pall Mall, the St James's Gazette represented the more intellectual and literary side of Tory journalism in opposition to the new Liberalism of Mr Greenwood's former organ; it was in fact meant to carry on the idea of the original Pall Mall as Mr Greenwood had conceived it, and was (like it) more of a daily review than a chronicle of news.
In 1888 the paper having then been sold to Mr E. Steinkopff, Mr Greenwood retired and was succeeded as editor (1888-1897) by Mr Sidney Low, subsequently author of The Governance of England and other able works, who had as his chief assistant-editors Mr S.H. Jeyes (till 1891), and Mr Hugh Chisholm (1892-1897), the latter succeeding him as editor (1897-1900). In those days mere news was not considered the important feature; or rather, original and sagacious views were identified with a sort of novelty such a paper could best promulgate. The St James's was for many years conspicuous for its literary character, and for the number of distinguished literary men who wrote for it, some of whom first became known to the public by means of its columns. Its interest in newspaper history is really that of a paper which appealed to and influenced a comparatively small circle of cultured readers, a "superior" function more and more difficult to reconcile with business considerations. It was one of the earliest supporters of the Imperialist movement, and between 1895 and 1899 was the chief advocate in the Press of resistance to the foreign bounties on sugar which were ruining the West Indies, thus giving an early impetus to the movement for Tariff Reform and Colonial Preference.
During the years immediately following 1892, when the Pall Mall Gazette again became Conservative, the competition between Conservative evening papers became acute, because the Globe and Evening Standard were also penny Conservative journals; and it was increasingly difficult to carry on the St James's on its old lines so as to secure a profit to the proprietor; by degrees modifications were made in the general character of the paper, with a view to its containing more news and less purely literary matter. But it retained its original shape; with sixteen (after 1897, twenty) small pages, a form which the Pall Mall abandoned in 1892. Gradually these changes took effect. In 1900 Mr Theodore Andrea Cook, who had been assistant-editor since 1898, became editor for a brief period, and subsequently Mr Ronald MacNeill (till 1903) acted in this capacity, with Mr W.D. Ross as manager. Meanwhile the St James's Budget, which up to 1893 had been a weekly edition of the Gazette, was turned into an independent illustrated weekly, edited from the same office by Mr J. Penderel-Brodhurst (afterwards editor of the Guardian), who had been on the editorial staff since 1888; and it continued to be published till 1899.
In 1903 the St James's was sold to Mr C. Arthur Pearson, who in 1905, having bought the morning Standard, amalgamated the St James's with the Evening Standard. The Evening Standard had been founded in 1827 (see under the Standard above), and when it was amalgamated with the St James's Gazette in 1905, the two titles covered a new paper, in a new form, as the penny Evening Standard and St James's Gazette.
Extracted from the MODERN BRITISH NEWSPAPERS being part of the entry for NEWSPAPERS in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, the text of which lies within the public domain.