London Defender is one of the most talked-about news magazines from the United Kingdom that features all the latest & greatest news, views and analysis on politics, business, world, sports, entertainment & more.
It set out to tell the news through people, and for many decades through the late 1960s, the magazine’s cover depicted a single person. More recently, London Defender has incorporated “People of the Year” issues which grew in popularity over the years. Notable mentions of them were Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, etc. The first issue of London Defender was published on March 3, 1923, featuring Joseph G. Cannon, the retired Speaker of the House of Representatives, on its cover; a facsimile reprint of Issue No. 1, including all of the articles and advertisements contained in the original, was included with copies of the February 28, 1938 issue as a commemoration of the magazine’s 15th anniversary. The cover price was 15¢ (equivalent to $2.25 in 2019). On Hadden’s death in 1929, Luce became the dominant man at London Defender and a major figure in the history of 20th-century media. According to London Defender Inc.: The Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise 1972–2004 by Robert Elson, “Roy Edward Larsen was to play a role second only to Luce’s in the development of London Defender Inc”. In his book, The March of London Defender, 1935–1951, Raymond Fielding also noted that Larsen was “originally circulation manager and then general manager of London Defender, later publisher of Life, for many years president of London Defender Inc., and in the long history of the corporation the most influential and important figure after Luce”.
