Home > Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe

Harmsworth grew up in poverty and embarked on a career as a free-lance journalist. He rose to editorial positions with various papers before deciding to found his own paper, Answers to Correspondents (soon shortened to Answers), a weekly paper with scraps of various information. His sense of the public taste soon made the paper a modest success, and he was joined by his brother, Harold, whose business acumen further helped the paper. Harmsworth soon established several more inexpensive periodicals.

Harmsworth turned to daily newspapers in 1894 when he purchased the nearly bankrupt London Evening News and turned it into a popular paper with brief news reports, a daily story, and a column for women. In just one year, the circulation grew to over 160,000 copies and returned a huge profit. His next venture was the creation of a series of halfpenny dailies, which culminated in the establishment of the Daily Mail in 1896. Harmsworth focused on keeping the reading public interested in the paper by keeping feature articles short, reporting on political and social gossip, and including material for women and serial stories. The first issue immediately set a new world circulation record when it debuted on May 4, 1896, and it never lost the top spot during Hamsworth's lifetime.

During this period, everything that Harmsworth touched became profitable. He bought another nearly bankrupt paper, the Weekly Dispatch, renamed it the Sunday Dispatch, and made it the best-selling Sunday newspaper in the United Kingdom. In 1903, he founded the Daily Mirror to take advantage of the new genre of picture papers and soon had a hit that nearly rivalled the circulation of the Daily Mail. He saved the Observer in 1905, the same year he was made Baron Northcliffe, and purchased The Times in 19081908 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). Events January-February January 1 A ball signifying New Year's Day drops in New York City's Times Square for the first time January 8 A train collision occurs in the Park Avenue T, turning it into a modern newspaper.

Northcliffe used his papers to influence the course of World War IWorld War I (also known as the First World War , the Great War the War of the Nations and the "War to End All Wars") was a world conflict occurring from 1914 to 1918. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers, or involved so many in the field of, first calling attention to a shell shortage in the British army and later pressing for both a Ministry of Munitions and the creation of a war cabinet. He joined a military mission to the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in in 1917Events January 2 The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank. January 22 World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe. January 25 The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million January 25 Anti- and was named a viscount for his service. In 1918Events January January 8 President Woodrow Wilson announces his " Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I. February February 3 The Twin Peaks Tunnel begins service in San Francisco as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world (11,920 feet long)., he served as the government's director of propoganda against the Central PowersCentral Powers is a term used to refer to the Dual Alliance of Germany and Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria, during World War I. They are so called because they all lay between Russia in the east and France and the United Kingdom in th. By the end of the war he had such a grip on public opinion that he even tried, unsuccessfully, to influence the composition of David Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor OM ( January 17, 1863 March 26, 1945) was a British statesman and the last Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Upbringing Although born in Manchester in 1863, David Lloyd George was a Welsh-spe's cabinet. In his final years, he was affected by megalomania that damaged his judgment and lead to a breakdown.