How about a story about a man who shaped modern journalism? This Alfred Harmsworth Blue plaque commemorates Alfred Harmsworth. He was later known as Viscount Northcliffe. This plaque marks his former residence. It is located at 31 Pandora Road in West Hampstead.
Alfred Harmsworth lived here. He was a journalist and newspaper proprietor. The Greater London Council erected this plaque in 1979. It is in the London Borough of Camden.
Alfred Charles William Harmsworth was born in Chapelizod, County Dublin in 1865. He died in London in 1922. Harmsworth was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. He owned the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror. He greatly influenced British popular opinion during the Edwardian era. Lord Beaverbrook called him “the greatest figure who ever strode down Fleet Street.”
Harmsworth innovated popular journalism. He famously said “News is something someone wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising.”
During World War I, Lord Northcliffe powerfully criticized the government. This concerned the Shell Crisis of 1915. He directed a mission to the United States in 1917. In 1918 he became director of enemy propaganda.
Alfred Harmsworth started his first newspaper called Answers. His brother Harold assisted him. Harold was adept in business. Harmsworth intuitively knew what the public wanted. He created successful periodicals like Comic Cuts and Forget-Me-Not. He developed the world’s largest periodical publishing company: Amalgamated Press.
In 1896 Alfred Harmsworth began publishing the Daily Mail. It became a huge success. It held the world record for daily circulation until his death. The Daily Mail was known as “the busy man’s daily journal”. It was also known as “the penny newspaper for one halfpenny”.
In 1903 Harmsworth initiated The Daily Mirror. He rescued The Observer and The Times in 1905 and 1908 respectively.
Alfred Harmsworth was made a Baronet in 1904. In 1905 he became Baron Northcliffe. King Edward VII requested this peerage. Some allege it was purchased. In 1918 Harmsworth was created Viscount Northcliffe. This was for his service as director of the British war mission in the United States.
Alfred Harmsworth married Mary Elizabeth Milner in 1888. They had no children together. Lord Northcliffe had four acknowledged illegitimate children.
By 1914 Northcliffe controlled 40% of the morning newspaper circulation. He also controlled 45% of the evening and 15% of the Sunday circulation in Britain. His newspapers influenced both “the classes and the masses”. He dominated the British press “as it never has been before or since by one man”.
The Daily Mail displayed “a virulent anti-German sentiment”. The Star declared “Next to the Kaiser, Lord Northcliffe has done more than any living man to bring about the war”. His newspapers helped end Prime Minister H. H. Asquith’s government.
In 1903 Harmsworth initiated the Harmsworth Cup. This was the first international award for motorboat racing.
Lord Northcliffe’s health declined in 1921. He died of endocarditis in London in 1922. He left three months’ pay to each of his six thousand employees. The titles of Viscount, Baron, and Baronet of Northcliffe became extinct.
Today, this Alfred Harmsworth Blue plaque serves as a reminder. It reminds us of a man who revolutionized journalism and wielded immense influence.