Ritz Newspaper

Ritz Newspaper

Ritz Newspaper Masthead
Co-editor	David Bailey, David Litchfield
Categories	fashion, gossip and celebrity
Frequency	monthly
Publisher	David Bailey, David Litchfield
Year founded	1976
First issue	December 1976
Company	Bailey Litchfield Productions Ltd
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
ISSN	0144-7416

Ritz Newspaper, colloquially Ritz Magazine, sometimes simply Ritz, was a British magazine focusing on gossip, celebrity and fashion. It was launched in 1976 by David Bailey and David Litchfield, who acted as co-editors.

The first issue of Ritz was published in December 1976. Published on newsprint and described by Litchfield as "the Lou Reed of publishing", it sold 25,000 copies a month at its peak in 1981. It ran for fifteen years, though at the beginning of the 1990s it lost readership to glossy titles such as Tatler. It closed temporarily in 1983 and in October 1988. Redesigned in A4 format on matte art stock paper by art director Tony Judge, it relaunched early in 1989 with funding from the property developer Neville Roberts, finally closing in the early 1990s.

The founder gossip columnists covering the London social scene were Nicholas Haslam,Frances Lynn,Stephen Lavers and Amanda Lear.

Haslam, an Old Etonian society decorator, wrote about his British aristocratic and Hollywood movie star friends under the pen name Paul Parsons. Lynn wrote the 'Bitch' gossip column about café society. Lavers, who moonlighted as Head of Films at A&M Records was the Music and Media columnist. Lear gossiped about the international glitterati. Lavers and Lear even interviewed each other. Richard Young was initially hired as Lynn's photographer, but eventually took photographs for all the columns. The four gossip columnists sometimes attended the same parties and wrote about each other. Haslam invited Lynn to all the parties he organised for his celebrity friends like Andy Warhol, so that she could report about them in her column.