Week 2 Thursday 7th October.

Seminar
Tabloid Nation part one. Those Horrible Harmsworths

Alfred Harmsworth was born into an educated family in 1865, he was the creator of the original Daily Mail.
He advertised it as 'a penny paper for half-a-penny', 'the busy mans paper'. He wanted to capture audiences with simplicity, he said "they have no interest in society, but want anything which is interesting and simple."
It sold 397,215 copies on its first day of publication.
Harmsworth had a skill of thinking up clever competitions and creating cash prizes which were basically un-winnable but they attracted 700,000 entries which sent circulation into the roof.

The seminar began by discussing the comparisons between Alfred Harmsworth and William Randolf Hearst.

• Both men were politically minded
• They were clever minded about how to present their news papers - bold headlines, pictures
• They had business minds. They knew what stories would sell papers - war, crime, sex, royals
• Circulation was very important
  

Kennedy Jones, also known as KJ, was the day-to-day editor or The Daily Mail. Described as 'an intelligent but course man with no charm or manner or expression' he had previously worked at The Journal which was run by Hearst and was the veteran for "yellow press".

Alfred Harmsworth who was known as The Chief or Northcliffe introduced a women's section into the paper which was so successful that he produced an entirely new daily paper called The Daily Mirror which was aimed solely at women and was the first of its kind.
Kennedy Jones was put in charge although the paper failed.

Hannen Swaffer, the Pope of Fleet Street, rescued the paper by re-launching it as a 'picture paper' calling it 'The Illustrated Daily Mirror". The paper was then such a success that it was read my women and men and was 'something to look at on their way to work'.

I believe that a difference between Harmsworth and Hearst is that while both men desired top stories, Harmsworth was more concerned with where he could get in society. An example of this is how he saw himself as a potential kingmaker, using the opinions-forming power of his newspapers to pull strings behind the scenes.

During the First World War the Daily Mirror had a fantastic reputation. It had the highest sale of any daily newspaper and was known as the forces paper. It was delivered to the trenches giving the men an escape from war; 'a slice of life' back home.