Mr. Thomas Ferrier Burns This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. The Tablet

   thetablet.co.uk/pages/history/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 12/29/2007   Last Visited: 12/29/2007

   After several unsuitable potential purchasers approached, Tom Burns, an editor of Longmans Green, made a firm offer of £500.
   ...
   Oldmeadow had learnt that Burns had "conceived some extremely bitter feeling against me,.
   ...
   The first meeting of the Board of the newly-established Tablet Publishing Company took place on 5 March 1936, with the two founder directors, Douglas Woodruff and Thomas Ferrier Burns, resolving to appoint Mr Magnani as secretary.
   ...
   The sum of £3,000 had to be raised to tide the paper over the first years and Tom Burns proposed buying the serial rights to Chesterton's autobiography, They cost £500, but undoubtedly added to the numbers of subscribers.
   ...
   Burns & Oates Holdings was created to control this empire, which eventually also included the Clergy Review, Burns & Oates publishing and shops and Spes Travel.
   ...
   Burns told Woodruff that the paper was dying on its feet.
   ...
   Burns was Woodruff's heir apparent, but the board had first to persuade Woodruff to retire.
   ...
   Burns saw a coming crisis and wrote a memorandum in August 1966 that The Tablet should "take stock of its position" and among the consequences of the Council, he particularly mentioned ecumenism. The responsibility and potential influence of the paper, he claimed,
   ...
   Late in 1966 Tom Burns, not yet editor, received an anonymous parcel of documents. He realised they must have come from friends on the US weekly, National Catholic Reporter. They were the final report of the Pontifical Commission on Population, Family and Birth, the outcome of which was a proposal to revise the traditional Catholic teaching on the subject. Burns persuaded Woodruff, who was initially dismissive, to publish the text.
   ...
   Tom Burns, a founding director of The Tablet Publishing Company, had considerable experience of publishing - including running his own journal, Order. During the war he had been press attaché to the British embassy in Madrid. On his return to England, he took charge of Burns & Oates and became chairman. He was now 61 years old.
   
   His appointment announcement implied that there would be no change to editorial policy. The full text of Humanae Vitae was published on 3 August 1968 and Burns wrote "neither joy nor hope can we derive from the Encyclical itself". But he went on to say that this was not necessarily a criticism, more an issue of authority:
   ...
   Some readers wrote to congratulate Burns, others to criticise him.
   ...
   Burns replied that he heard with "great joy and gratitude" that the Pope was reading The Tablet.
   ...
   But Burns held to his convictions. At Burn's seventieth birthday in 1976 Woodruff's speech at the dinner concentrated on his achievement as a publisher, rather than as editor. Two years later, Burns wrote Woodruff's obituary for The Tablet and noted how "for him it (the Church) seemed to be falling apart, for many others it was pulling itself together", but the lengthy appreciation in the issue of 18 March 1978 was generous to Woodruff's many virtues.
   
   Burns' stance over Humanae Vitae had been a brave one and cost the paper much in terms of circulation, which dropped to 8,500 in 1978. In ecclesiastical terms, the paper was seen as radical, and politically as right of centre, so it lost readers both ways.
   
   In the Nigerian civil war of the late 1960s, Burns also took an independent line. Contrary to other Catholic papers, Burns supported the British and Lagos Government, rather than the rebel and largely Catholic, Biafrans.
   
   In 1967 Burns & Oates Publishing was sold to Herder and Herder of Freiburg. Three years later the firm pulled out of England. More significant was the sale of The Universe, which was sold for £240,000 at the beginning of 1970. In 1971 The Tablet was bought by Tom Burns himself. Henceforward it had to pay for itself.
   
   Burns had already made efforts to extend the paper's outreach. He built bridges with the Irish and in 1968 an Irish supplement was begun. The Tablet dining club was instituted and the Board of Directors was widened to include more business people. July 1972 saw a new, specially designed, title-piece, and a revamped front page.
   
   But the circulation continued to drop as the prices rose. Burns had approached a number of people to give money in form of shares and looked to both individuals and religious houses. Some capital was acquired, but not enough.
   ...
   For the Falklands War, Burns urged moderation and the mediation of the United Nations.
   ...
   Having weathered the storm of Humanae Vitae alongside Burns, he did not come to the editorship to change the paper's direction. He meant to make the news more immediate and the political stance a little more radical. In his first editorial, on 10 July 1982, he wrote,
   ...
   The ecumenical dimension initiated by Burns has meant that readers now come from both inside and outside the Catholic Church.

2. 2. The Tablet

   www.thetablet.co.uk/pages/hist - [Cached]

   Published on: 8/21/2006   Last Visited: 8/21/2006

   After several unsuitable potential purchasers approached, Tom Burns, an editor of Longmans Green, made a firm offer of £500.
   ...
   Oldmeadow had learnt that Burns had "conceived some extremely bitter feeling against me,.
   ...
   The first meeting of the Board of the newly-established Tablet Publishing Company took place on 5 March 1936, with the two founder directors, Douglas Woodruff and Thomas Ferrier Burns, resolving to appoint Mr Magnani as secretary.
   ...
   The sum of £3,000 had to be raised to tide the paper over the first years and Tom Burns proposed buying the serial rights to Chesterton's autobiography, They cost £500, but undoubtedly added to the numbers of subscribers.
   ...
   Burns & Oates Holdings was created to control this empire, which eventually also included the Clergy Review, Burns & Oates publishing and shops and Spes Travel.
   ...
   Burns told Woodruff that the paper was dying on its feet.
   ...
   Burns was Woodruff's heir apparent, but the board had first to persuade Woodruff to retire.
   ...
   Burns saw a coming crisis and wrote a memorandum in August 1966 that The Tablet should "take stock of its position" and among the consequences of the Council, he particularly mentioned ecumenism. The responsibility and potential influence of the paper, he claimed,
   ...
   Late in 1966 Tom Burns, not yet editor, received an anonymous parcel of documents. He realised they must have come from friends on the US weekly, National Catholic Reporter. They were the final report of the Pontifical Commission on Population, Family and Birth, the outcome of which was a proposal to revise the traditional Catholic teaching on the subject. Burns persuaded Woodruff, who was initially dismissive, to publish the text.
   ...
   Tom Burns, a founding director of The Tablet Publishing Company, had considerable experience of publishing - including running his own journal, Order. During the war he had been press attaché to the British embassy in Madrid. On his return to England, he took charge of Burns & Oates and became chairman. He was now 61 years old.
   
   His appointment announcement implied that there would be no change to editorial policy. The full text of Humanae Vitae was published on 3 August 1968 and Burns wrote "neither joy nor hope can we derive from the Encyclical itself". But he went on to say that this was not necessarily a criticism, more an issue of authority:
   ...
   Some readers wrote to congratulate Burns, others to criticise him.
   ...
   Burns replied that he heard with "great joy and gratitude" that the Pope was reading The Tablet.
   ...
   But Burns held to his convictions. At Burn's seventieth birthday in 1976 Woodruff's speech at the dinner concentrated on his achievement as a publisher, rather than as editor. Two years later, Burns wrote Woodruff's obituary for The Tablet and noted how "for him it (the Church) seemed to be falling apart, for many others it was pulling itself together", but the lengthy appreciation in the issue of 18 March 1978 was generous to Woodruff's many virtues.
   
   Burns' stance over Humanae Vitae had been a brave one and cost the paper much in terms of circulation, which dropped to 8,500 in 1978. In ecclesiastical terms, the paper was seen as radical, and politically as right of centre, so it lost readers both ways.
   
   In the Nigerian civil war of the late 1960s, Burns also took an independent line. Contrary to other Catholic papers, Burns supported the British and Lagos Government, rather than the rebel and largely Catholic, Biafrans.
   
   In 1967 Burns & Oates Publishing was sold to Herder and Herder of Freiburg. Three years later the firm pulled out of England. More significant was the sale of The Universe, which was sold for £240,000 at the beginning of 1970. In 1971 The Tablet was bought by Tom Burns himself. Henceforward it had to pay for itself.
   
   Burns had already made efforts to extend the paper's outreach. He built bridges with the Irish and in 1968 an Irish supplement was begun. The Tablet dining club was instituted and the Board of Directors was widened to include more business people. July 1972 saw a new, specially designed, title-piece, and a revamped front page.
   
   But the circulation continued to drop as the prices rose. Burns had approached a number of people to give money in form of shares and looked to both individuals and religious houses. Some capital was acquired, but not enough.
   ...
   For the Falklands War, Burns urged moderation and the mediation of the United Nations.
   ...
   Having weathered the storm of Humanae Vitae alongside Burns, he did not come to the editorship to change the paper's direction. He meant to make the news more immediate and the political stance a little more radical. In his first editorial, on 10 July 1982, he wrote,
   ...
   The ecumenical dimension initiated by Burns has meant that readers now come from both inside and outside the Catholic Church.

3. 3. - Welcome to the Tablet

   www.thetablet.com/history.shtm - [Cached]

   Published on: 8/4/2001   Last Visited: 8/9/2001

   After several unsuitable potential purchasers approached, Mr. Tom Burns, an editor of Longmans Green, made a firm offer of £500.
   ...
   Oldmeadow had learnt that Burns had "conceived some extremely bitter feeling against me….
   ...
   The first meeting of the Board of the newly-established Tablet Publishing Company took place on 5 March 1936, with the two founder directors, Douglas Woodruff and Thomas Ferrier Burns, resolving to appoint Mr Magnani as secretary.
   ...
   Burns & Oates Holdings was created to control this empire, which eventually also included the Clergy Review, Burns & Oates publishing and shops and Spes Travel.
   ...
   When it ended in December 1965, Douglas Woodruff, already well over retirement age, was running a paper with a very healthy circulation and which appeared to have a secure basis in a profitable company, Burns & Oates Holdings.
   ...
   Burns told Woodruff that the paper was dying on its feet.
   ...
   Burns was Woodruff's heir apparent, but the board had first to persuade Woodruff to retire.
   ...
   Burns saw a coming crisis and wrote a memorandum in August 1966 that The Tablet should "take stock of its position" and among the consequences of the Council, particularly mentioned ecumenism. The responsibility and potential influence of the paper, he claimed, "are greater at this time than at any other in its hundred years of history. If Catholicism in England has emerged from the ghetto, this must not suggest a merge with the surrounding word. Ecumenism is not the last refuge of feeble ecclesiastical minds but a gathering of strength from all the sources and resources of Christian values in face of the ultimate challenge of atheism, in all its expressions in personal and political life.
   
   It is in the matter of this emergence and this ecumenism that The Tablet can now play a leading part. Its new impetus must be, indeed, that of the Church herself as a result of Vatican II.
   ...
   Late in 1966 Tom Burns, not yet editor, received an anonymous parcel of documents. He realised they must have come from friends on the US weekly, National Catholic Reporter. They were the final report of the Pontifical Commission on Population, Family and Birth, the outcome of which was a proposal to revise the traditional Catholic teaching on the subject. Burns persuaded Woodruff, who was initially dismissive, to publish the text.
   ...
   Tom Burns, a founding director of the Tablet Publishing Company, had considerable experience of publishing - including running his own journal, 'Order'. During the war he had been press attaché to the British embassy in Madrid. On his return to England, he took charge of Burns & Oates and became chairman. He was now 61 years old.
   
   His appointment announcement implied that there would be no change to editorial policy. The full text of Humanae Vitae was published on 3 August 1968 and Burns wrote "neither joy nor hope can we derive from the Encyclical itself". But he went on to say that this was not necessarily a criticism, more an issue of authority: "A new chapter in the relationship of the Pope with his bishops and with the faithful at large has now opened on a sombre note. There will be doubt and dismay about the Church herself among her more reflective members, a new bravado in some sectors: a mutual distrust.
   
   Loyalty to the faith and to the whole principle of authority now consists in this: to speak out about this disillusion of ours, not to be silenced by fear. We who are of the household and can think of no other have the right to question, complain and protest, when conscience impels. We have the right and we have the duty - out of love for the brethren.
   ...
   Some readers wrote to congratulate Burns, others to criticize him. That same issue held Woodruff's last "Talking at Random".
   ...
   Burns replied that he heard with "great joy and gratitude" that the Pope was reading The Tablet. The Apostolic Delegate wrote that "it is our duty to help The Tablet find its old equilibrium again".
   ...
   But Burns held to his convictions. At Burn's 70th birthday in 1976 Woodruff's speech at the dinner concentrated on his achievement as a publisher, rather than as editor. Two years later, Burns wrote Woodruff's obituary for The Tablet and noted how "for him it (the Church) seemed to be falling apart, for many others it was pulling itself together", but the lengthy appreciation in the issue of 18 March 1978 was generous to Woodruff's many virtues.
   
   Burns' stance over Humanae Vitae had been a brave one and cost the paper much in terms of circulation, which dropped to 8,500 in 1978. In ecclesiastical terms, the paper was seen as radical, and politically as right of centre, so it lost readers both ways.
   
   In the Nigerian civil war of the late 1960s, Burns also took an independent line. Contrary to other Catholic papers, Burns supported the British and Lagos government rather than the rebel and largely Catholic, Biafrans.
   
   In 1967 Burns & Oates Publishing was sold to Herder and Herder of Freiburg. Three years later the firm pulled out of England. More significant was the sale of The Universe, which was sold for £240,000 at the beginning of 1970. In 1971 The Tablet was bought by Tom Burns himself. Henceforward it had to pay for itself.
   
   Burns had already made efforts to extend the paper's outreach. He built bridges with the Irish and in 1968 an Irish supplement was begun. The Tablet dining club was instituted and The Board of Directors was widened to include more business people. July 1972 saw a new, especially designed, title-piece, and a revamped front page.
   
   But the circulation continued to drop as the prices rose. Burns had approached a number of people to give money in form of shares and looked to both individuals and religious houses. Some capital was acquired, but not enough. In 1974 the Editor launched a discreet appeal. This was more successful, as a succession of wealthy backers made donations. The Tablet Trust was therefore established in May 1976, as a registered charity.
   ...
   For the Falklands War, Burns urged moderation and the mediation of the United Nations.
   ...
   Having weathered the storm of Humanae Vitae alongside Burns, he did not come to the editorship to change the paper's direction. He meant to make the news more immediate and the political stance a little more radical. In his first editorial, on 10 July 1982, he wrote, "We are committed to orthodoxy - that 'wild truth reeling but erect' of which Chesterton spoke. We believe in the dogmatic principle, as Newman did, whose example John Paul II commended so strikingly at Coventry … Nor should The Tablet be a paper of any particular party, whether of Church or State. It has a distinctive stance, but we believe no party has a monopoly of truth...
   
   Our concern is with the world as much as with the Church: with everything that is human. We shall seek to inform and interpret as well as to comment.
   ...
   The ecumenical dimension initiated by Burns has meant that readers now come from both inside and outside the Catholic Church.