Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe

Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe ( 15 July 1865 - 14 August 1922) rose from childhood poverty to become a powerful 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. Unfortunately, megalomania contributed to a nervous breakdown shortly before his death. Download high resolution version (483x700, 62 KB)Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe - Project Gutenberg eText 15305 From http://www. ... Download high resolution version (483x700, 62 KB)Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe - Project Gutenberg eText 15305 From http://www. ... is the 196th day of the year (197th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ... is the 226th day of the year (227th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... Look up megalomania in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Although born near Dublin, Harmsworth was educated at the Stamford School in Lincolnshire, England. The Spire at night WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: , Statistics Province: Leinster County: Dáil Éireann: Dublin Central, Dublin North Central, Dublin North East, Dublin North West, Dublin South Central, Dublin South East European Parliament: Dublin Dialling Code: 01, +353 1 Postal District(s): D1-24, D6W Area: 114. ... Stamford School is an English public school in the market town of Stamford, Lincolnshire. ... Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs) is a county in the east of England. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Unified  -  by Athelstan 927 AD  Area  -  Total 130...

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. Lord Rothermere Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere (26 April 1868 – 26 November 1940) was a highly successful British newspaper proprietor, owner of Associated Newspapers. ... Fleetway, also known as Fleetway Publications and Fleetway Editions, was a publishing company, mainly producing comic magazines for the U.K.. Fleetway began life as Amalgamated Press, the company owned by Alfred Harmsworth, who were based in Fleetway House. ...

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; its taglines included "the busy man's daily journal" and "the penny newspaper for one halfpenny". The Daily Mail held the world record for daily circulation until Harmsworth's death. 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 The Observer and The Times in 1905 and 1908, respectively. In 1908, he also acquired The Sunday Times. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Front page of the first issue of the Evening News from July 26 1881. ... Edinburgh (() pronounced ; Scottish Gaelic: ) is the capital of Scotland and its second largest city. ... The Daily Mail is a British tabloid newspaper first published in 1896. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... The Sunday Dispatch was a British newspaper, published between 27 September 1801 and 1961. ... Alternate newspaper: The Daily Mirror (Australia) The Daily Mirror is a British tabloid daily newspaper. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom since 1785, and under its current name since 1788. ... The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper distributed in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International which is in turn owned by News Corporation. ...

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[1].

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 George's appointment as Prime Minister in 1916. George offered Lord Northcliffe a post in his cabinet, but Northcliffe declined; instead, he was appointed as Britain's Director for Propaganda. However, Lord Northcliffe overreached himself in the post-war era by trying to influence the composition of Prime Minister George's cabinet through his newspapers. The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom since 1785, and under its current name since 1788. ... The Poo Crisis of 1915 brought down the government of the United Kingdom (then engaged in World War I) because it was widely perceived that the production of artillery shells for use by the British Army was inadequate. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... A prime minister is the most senior minister of a cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. ... The Right Honourable Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KG, PC (12 September 1852–15 February 1928) served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. ... The Minister of Munitions was a British government position created during the First World War to oversee and co-ordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort. ... David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor, OM, PC (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was a British statesman who guided Britain and the British Empire through World War I and the postwar settlement as the Liberal Party Prime Minister, 1916-1922. ...

In 1903, Harmsworth founded the Harmsworth Cup, the first international award for motorboat racing. Similar to the Olympic Games, each entry in the race is supposed to represent a nation. The Harmsworth Cup is the popular name of the historically important British International Trophy for Motorboats. ... A 1962 Rebel. A wooden speedboat with an outboard engine. ... The five Olympic rings were designed in 1913, adopted in 1914 and debuted at the Games at Antwerp, 1920. ... One of the most influential doctrines in history is that all humans are divided into groups called nations. ...

Trivia

The P.G. Wodehouse character Lord Tilbury, owner of the Mammoth Publishing House, is a thinly disguised lampooning of Lord Northcliffe. Called English literatures performing flea, P. G. Wodehouse, pictured in 1904, became famous for his complex plots, ingenious wordplay, and prolific output. ...

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 in respect of his gardener's wife who was killed in the attack.

Alfred Harmsworth was the first person to own and drive a Mercedes Benz in England.

He created the first Ideal Home exhibition in 1908.

References

• D. George Boyce (2004). Harmsworth, Alfred Charles William, Viscount Northcliffe (1865–1922). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press.

External links

• DMGT, Rothermere and Northcliffe
• Alfred Harmsworth, Lord Northcliffe on Spartacus Educational
• Who's Who: Lord Northcliffe