Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe
Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. As owner of the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror, he was an early developer of popular journalism, and he exercised vast influence over British popular opinion during the Edwardian era. Lord Beaverbrook said he was "the greatest figure who ever strode down Fleet Street." About the beginning of the 20th century there were increasing attempts to develop popular journalism intended for the working class and tending to emphasize sensational topics. Harmsworth was the main innovator. He said, "News is something someone wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising."
Photograph by Gertrude Käsebier (1908)
June 1917
Monument to Northcliffe at St Dunstan-in-the-West
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper published in London. It was founded in 1896. As of 2020, it was the highest paid circulation newspaper in the UK. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982, a Scottish edition was launched in 1947, and an Irish edition in 2006. Content from the paper appears on the MailOnline news website, although the website is managed separately and has its own editor.
Advertisement by the Daily Mail for insurance against Zeppelin attacks during the First World War
Bundles of newspapers loaded into the back of a Daily Mail van in the early hours for delivery to newsagents in 1944
Sub-editor's room at the offices of the Daily Mail newspaper in 1944