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Alfred Charles William Harmsworth

In the beginning

Alfred Charles William Harmsworth was born on July 15th, 1865, at Sunnybank in Chapelizod near Dublin, Ireland. He was named after his father and two grandfathers. His nickname was "Sunny" but he soon became the boss of all the little Harmsworths who were to follow.

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In the Beginning: Baby Picture of Alfred Harmsworth
Circa 1867

Credits:
Thompson, J. Lee. Northcliffe: Press Baron in Politics 1865-1922. Publisher: John Murray; 1st Edition (2000)

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Young Alfred

From the beginning, Alfred Junior assumed an air of superiority which was probably necessitated by his father's abstraction and frequent emotional and physical absences coupled with his mother's lack of open affection towards the family. Although the Harmsworth children in general were known for their assertiveness, it was Alfred Junior who assumed the role of leader and persuaded the others to go along with his schemes for bettering the family.

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Young Alfred Harmsworth
Circa 1890

Credits:
Taylor, S.J. The Great Outsiders; Northcliffe, Rothermere and The Daily Mail. Copyright © S.J. Taylor, 1996

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The Young Journalist

Alfred's love of journalism was developed early. A neighbor, George Jealous, ran a local newspaper and Alfred loved to observe the press runs. For Alfred's eighth birthday, Jealous gave him a toy printing press and thus began the basis of the future Harmsworth empire. Alfred was a keen consumer and observer of the journals of the day and he early developed a deep understanding of the power of the written word, what the reading public preferred and what was needed to ensure success.

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The Young Journalist: Answers
Circa 1888

Credits:
http://www.philsp.com/data/data022.html

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Early Days

Alfred began his career as a writer for such magazines as Young Folks' Tales and Youth, eventually becoming the editor of the latter magazine. All through this process, he continued to acquire a deeper understanding and knowledge of the workings of the journalist's trade. Most importantly, he seemed to know instinctively what appealed to the general public and what would sell. What he was seeking was a venue for his particular set of talent and skills.

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Early Days: Alfred Harmsworth
Circa 1881

Credits:
Taylor, S.J. The Great Outsiders; Northcliffe, Rothermere and The Daily Mail. Copyright © S.J. Taylor, 1996

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Married Life

In April of 1888, Alfred married Mary Milner and that same year, using borrowed funds, he launched his first publishing venture entitled Answers to Correspondents. The content was based on Alfred's analysis of the tastes of the reading public of the day. Articles were derived from questions supposedly posed by enquiring readers. The first issue was Number 3 since one had to assume previous publications to generate the questions needed for articles. (Issues Numbers 1 and 2 were published at a later date.)

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Married Life: Alfred Harmsworth and Mary Milner
1890-1899

Credits:
Taylor, S.J. The Great Outsiders; Northcliffe, Rothermere and The Daily Mail. Copyright © S.J. Taylor, 1996
Thompson, J. Lee. Northcliffe: Press Baron in Politics 1865-1922. Publisher: John Murray; 1st Edition (2000)

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Wife: Mary Northcliffe
Early 1900s
Location unknown

Credits:
Ferris, Paul. The House of Northcliffe: The Harmsworths of Fleet Street. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1971.

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Early Business Life

Alfred gauged the reading tastes of the public very accurately. He replaced the stodgy columns with much shorter ones on a wide variety of topics more appealing to the increasing number of middle class readers. He introduced contests, the first of which was an idea he got from a tramp of ?1 a week for life, and this boosted circulation tremendously. His papers became known for their distinct contest offerings. Some of the events started and supported by Northcliffe and the Daily Mail are still in existence. For example, in 1908 the Mail began the Ideal Home Exhibition which still runs today and it also established a number of competitions such as the hat design competition in 1920 that had 40,000 entries and a prize of £100. Northcliffe also included illustrations and photos to add interest to the stories in his publications as can be seen in the November 4th, 1894, issue of the Evening News.

He was also responsible for coining some terms such as tabloid and suffragette which passed into common usage in the English language.

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Early Business Life: Alfred Harmsworth
2 November 1894

Credits:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jevening.htm

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The Daily Mail

The Daily Mail was really the basis upon which the Harmsworth Empire was built. The contents were more appealing to the reading public and consisted of short segments often accompanied by an illustration of some type. It carried a banner headline at the top of the page. Sports and human interest stories were important components, and the Daily News was the first newspaper with a woman's section covering such matters as fashions and cookery.