Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe

Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (15 July1865 - 14 August1922) rose from childhood poverty to become a powerful British newspaper and publishing magnate, famed for buying stolid, unprofitable newspapers and transforming (some say demeaning) them to make them lively and entertaining for the mass market. During his lifetime, he exercised vast influence over British popular opinion. Megalomania contributed to a nervous breakdown shortly before his death.

Biography

Early life and financial success

Although born near Dublin, Harmsworth was educated at the Stamford School in Lincolnshire, England. He was the elder brother of Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere and the Liberal politician Cecil Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth.

Beginning as a free-lance journalist, he founded his first newspaper, "Answers" (original title: "Answers to Correspondents"), and was later assisted by his brother Harold, who was adept at business matters. Harmsworth had an intuitive sense for what the reading public wanted to buy, and began a series of cheap but successful periodicals, such as "Comic Cuts" (tagline: "Amusing without being Vulgar") and the journal "Forget-Me-Not" for women. From these periodicals, he built what was then the largest periodical publishing empire in the world, Amalgamated Press.

Harmsworth was an early pioneer of tabloid journalism. He bought several failing newspapers and made them into an enormously profitable chain, primarily by appealing to the popular taste. He began with "The Evening News" in 1894, and then merged two Edinburgh papers to form the "Edinburgh Daily Record". On 4 May 1896, he began publishing the "Daily Mail" in London, which was a hit, holding the world record for daily circulation until Harmsworth's death; taglines of "The Daily Mail" included "the busy man's daily journal" and "the penny newspaper for one halfpenny". Harmsworth then transformed a Sunday newspaper, the "Weekly Dispatch", into the "Sunday Dispatch", then the highest circulation Sunday newspaper in Britain. Harmsworth also founded the "The Daily Mirror" in 1903, and rescued the financially desperate "Observer" and "Times" in 1905 and 1908, respectively. In 1908, he also acquired "The Sunday Times".

Ennobled: the World War I home front

In 1905 Harmsworth was given the title of Baron Northcliffe, of the Isle of Thanet and in 1918 advanced to Viscount Northcliffe, of St Peters in the County of Kent, for his service as the head of the British war mission in the United States. [LondonGazette|issue=30533|startpage=2212|date=19 February 1918|accessdate=2007-11-15]

Lord Northcliffe was also involved in politics. For example, his newspapers — especially "The Times" — reported the Shell Crisis of 1915 with such zeal that it brought down the wartime government of Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, forcing him to form a coalition government. Lord Northcliffe's newspapers led the fight for creating a Minister of Munitions (first held by David Lloyd George) and helped to bring about Lloyd George's appointment as Prime Minister in 1916. Lloyd George offered Lord Northcliffe a post in his cabinet, but Northcliffe declined and was appointed Director for Propaganda. Such was Northcliffe's influence on propaganda over the Germans in WWI, German battleships were sent to shell his house in an attempt to assassinate him. His former residence still bears a shell hole out of respect for his gardener's wife who was killed in the attack.

In 1903, Harmsworth founded the Harmsworth Cup, the first international award for motorboat racing.

Blue plaque

Lord Northcliffe lived for a time at 31 Pandora Road, West Hampstead - this site is now marked with an English Heritage blue plaque.

References

* D. George Boyce (2004). [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33717 Harmsworth, Alfred Charles William, Viscount Northcliffe] (1865–1922). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press.

External links

* [http://www.ketupa.net/dmgt2.htm DMGT, Rothermere and Northcliffe]
* [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/BUharmsworth.htm Alfred Harmsworth, Lord Northcliffe on Spartacus Educational]
* [http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/northcliffe.htm Who's Who: Lord Northcliffe]