For more information on Alfred Charles William Harmsworth Viscount Northcliffe of Saint Peter, visit Britannica.com.

Harmsworth, Alfred, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (1865-1922). Newspaper proprietor. The eldest son of a Dublin barrister who moved to London in 1867, Northcliffe was largely self-educated. Attracted to journalism, he discovered that he had a natural aptitude for the profession. In 1887 he formed his own publishing house, which he ran with his brother Harold. The business acquired first the Evening News, later the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, the Observer, and, in 1908, The Times. He was created baron (1905) and viscount (1918).

1865–1922, British journalist, b. Ireland. He was one of the most spectacular of popular journalists and newspaper publishers in the history of the British press. Beginning his career as a free-lance contributor to popular periodicals, he launched in 1888 his first independent effort, Answers to Correspondents, a weekly of informative tidbits. With his brother Harold (later Viscount Rothermere) as his financial administrator, he increased the circulation of his magazine in five years to more than a million copies a week. Other publications were gradually acquired that formed the basis for what became the world's largest periodical combine, the Amalgamated Press. In 1894, Northcliffe bought the London Evening News, launching his career in newspaper publishing. Continuing to popularize, he inaugurated such specialties as woman's columns, serials, and social gossip in this and in later papers that he founded—the Daily Mail in 1896 and the Daily Mirror in 1903. He gained control of the dying Times in 1908, putting it back on its feet with changes in makeup and editorial policy; The Times was sold to John Jacob Astor (1886–1971) after Northcliffe's death. His newspaper campaigns during World War I, particularly those concerning faulty munitions, national conscription, and food rationing, were determining factors in England's conduct of the war, and his support of Lloyd George in 1916 was instrumental in bringing the downfall of the Asquith government. He was made a viscount in 1917.

Bibliography

See biographies by R. Pound and G. Harmsworth (1960) and H. H. Fyfe (1930, repr. 1969); P. Ferris, The House of Northcliffe (1972).

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: British newspaper publisher (1865-1922)
  Synonyms: Harmsworth, Alfred Charles William Harmsworth

---