Launch of The New Bond - the F. W. Woolworth & Co. Ltd. Staff Magazine

Frank Winfield Woolworth was one of the world's great communicators. He wrote to his stores every day, with an ecletic mix of instructions, sales tips and news from his travels. When on buying trips to Europe he took pleasure in describing the new products that he had planned for his, but left room to describe the local scenery, costumes and even the food in the hotel restaurant. The tradition was maintained by the next generation of Company Executives, both in Britain and North America. President Hubert Parson, for example, wrote at length of his visit to the new Oxford Street, London, W1 store for its opening in 1924.

From 1909 to the mid 1930s in Britain, both the Executive Office and local District Office sent mail each day, turning out reams of typescript on every subject imaginable. Little of it reached the colleagues on the floor, and virtually all of the communication was one-way.

Then in June 1933 a member of the team at the Metropolitan District Office had a brainwave. They suggested a magazine which would seek input from the stores as well as conveying news from the office. The Office staff offered to type the journal in their lunch breaks. Copies were offered to staff for threepence (1¼p) "to cover our costs".

The initial run was limited to a hundred copies, which was the maximum number that could be printed from a single master on the office's Gestetner machine. They sold out quickly. A local printer was hired to produce the second edition and the print-run was increased to five hundred. That also sold out.

The authors invited input from store staff, giving examples of the kinds of things they were looking for. They were inundated with replies. The contributions included histories of some of the firm's products, recipes, knitting patterns, poems and anecdotes. Many also took the opportunity to share their thoughts about company policy. Few took the option to contribute anonymously or under a pseudonym, happy for their names to be published. The firm's top brass took criticism on the chin and were happy to join the debate. This followed a tradition started by Frank Woolworth and showcases the "classless" culture that he encouraged.

After a year in print the magazine had built a a regular readership of 5,000 from 2,000 printed copies. The threepenny cover price funded typesetting by the Company Printer, Duttons of Liverpool, who were able to reproduce photos and cartoon drawings.

Appropriately the first person pictured was "the boss", District Manager Frank Daniel Sprague. His resumé revealed that he had joined S. H. Knox & Co. as a learner in 1905. He had been appointed manager of his first store after just thirty months and had risen steadily to become a Superintendent in Kansas City before moving to the UK in 1925.

His first executive decision in Britain had been to rename his District, which changed from Southern  to Metropolitan, or Metro for short.

The two District Managers had seats on the Woolworth Board. Sprague was able to share news of the popularity of his team's venture into publishing. The Chairman, William Stephenson, was taken with the idea. All were agreed that it would be good to have a way of communicating directly with the shopfloor staff across the 620 stores. The Board adopted the idea, and set the wheels in motion for the first new Company magazine to be published in good time for Christmas 1935.

The new house journal was baptized 'The New Bond', adopting the name of the chain's fashionable address at New Bond Street House, 1-5 New Bond Street in Mayfair, London W1. It copied the same format of Metro News and Views and was also printed by Duttons of Liverpool. To introduce the magazine copies of the first edition were given away to staff as a Christmas present.

Among the features in the first edition was a history of the company under the banner "The Long Long Chain: the story of wonderful achievement", a ghost story, and a feature about a Sales Assistant from Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire who had been named the "company's champion lass". The magazine featured a special centre-spread picture, drawn by the legendary cartoonist H.M. Bateman. The tongue in cheek picture shows a windswept staff and shop recovering from the visit of "the customer who spent £10 in a Woolworth store". At the time a tenner was sufficient to pay for a multiple purchase of at least four hundred items!

Store colleagues like the new magazine. Most stores responded to the call to nominate a 'New Bond Correspondent' to channel news and photos of local events and stories. Many "NBCs" took their duties very seriously.

Copies of the bi-monthly magazine, which ran for over thirty five years, give a unique insight into the cultural life of the company and a snapshot of the wider social history of the United Kingdom and Irish Republic. The content reflects the interests of store staff and contains remarkably little company propaganda. Its pages offer a window on Air Raid Precautions, Gas Masks and a World War. It also shows the great changes in homes and families during the Fifites and Sixties.

Special measures were taken at the beginning of World War II to allow publication of The New Bond to continue. The Woolworth Chairman, William Stephenson, was in a unique position to obtain permission. The Government had sought his expertise to head Aircraft Production for the Air Ministry. His boss was the press baron, Lord Beaverbrook. He arranged a special dispensation and supplies of paper so long as the copies were targeted at employees who were serving in H.M. Forces. The wartime issues provide a remarkable documentary record of the conscripts and their War Service, including photos of each person in uniform.

They also give a largely uncensored snapshot of life on the Home Front, including shortages on the counters, the voluntary work undertaken by many of the staff as Special Constables, ARP Wardens, Auxiliary Nurses and in the Women's Voluntary Service. From 1941 they include details of the fallen and those reported missing, and by 1942 there are evocative letters and hand-drawn cards from prisoners-of-war who had received New Bonds in their red cross parcels.

The magazines also report the fund-raising initiatives at home that saw colleagues and Directors buy Spitfires for the RAF, fund a number of Homes for Orphans and take part in local initiatives like 'Blackburn's £1m tribute'. The final wartime issues, which were published by the American parent company as a sign of solidarity, also report the road to victory, demobilisation and the gradual return to normality as survivors returned home and resumed work for the Company.

After the War the journal converted to a compact layout, with a sprinkling of colour. The increased production cost was funded by a small amount of supplier product advertising. New features included movie reviews and features on pop music as welll as pen pictures of some of the diverse towns and cities served by the stores.

During the 1960s the parent company in the USA was keen to modernise and swept aside many long-standing traditions in North America. A new generation of Directors took a more active interest in the British subsidiary. Against the tide they recognised the value of The New Bond and introduced their own version in the USA and Canada. Early issues of their 'Woolworth World' had a number of similar features, but were more corporate and in broadsheet newspaper format. Copies were not distributed in Britain.

By the early 1970s pressure mounted for the British firm to follow suit. The decision to switch to a newspaper proved highly contentious, even after it was agreed that it would be given away free of charge. Long servers did not want to lose the New Bond name, even though the headquarters had moved to new premises in Marylebone Road, NW1 in 1959. All feared the onset of propaganda. The final edition of the New Bond, Volume 31, No. 3, which was published in July 1972, explained:

"The entire image of the Company today is changing - Cash/Wrap operation, Super stores, swinging fashions, largest record retailer, breaking new ground with exciting merchandise ... the list is endless. It is fitting that during this time of development the house journal should also develop and adopt the trend in industrial relations of newpapers to inform staff of the activities by their Company."

The replacement journal, "Woolworth News" (tweaked to "Woolworths News" and then "Woolies News") survived for a further 33 years in paper media, before moving to an intranet-based digital news feature called "The Quickie" which was published fortnightly until the business went into Administration in November 2008.