Cecil
King, the son of Sir Lucas White King and Geraldine Harmsworth, was
born on 20th February, 1901. His mother was the sister of Lord
Northcliffe and Lord Rothermere.
King was educated at Winchester and
Christchurch College, Oxford.
After university, Rothermere, employed his nephew on the Glasgow
Record. This followed by a period working for the Daily
Mail before joining the Daily Mirror
in 1926.
King was made advertising director of the Daily
Mirror in 1929 and when Lord Rothermere
disposed of his shares in the organisation in 1931, he began to assert
a growing influence on the political direction of the newspaper. With
the support of H. G. Bartholomew, the editorial
director, and the Richard Jennings, who was employed to write the
editorials, the newspaper moved to the left. Jennings took a keen
interest in foreign affairs and his lucid editorials helped to explain
to the readers the dangers being posed by Hitler's regime.
On the advice of King, H. G. Bartholomew,
decided to make the Daily Mirror
a tabloid newspaper. Bartholomew, who hated the arrogance and snobbery
of the upper classes, encouraged the editorial staff to develop an
anti-establishment tone. Bartholomew also employed radical journalists
such as Hugh Cudlipp and William
Connor, who wrote under the name of Cassandra.
In 1951 King replaced H. G. Bartholomew as
chairman of Daily Mirror Newspapers Ltd. A post he held until becoming
chairman of International Publishing Corporation in 1963.
In
1968 King was involved with Peter Wright
of MI5
agent
in a plot to bring down the government of Harold
Wilson and
replace it with a coalition led by Lord
Mountbatten. The conspiracy failed and King was forced to resign
as chairman of International Publishing Corporation.
Cecil
King died in 1987.
The
Daily Mirror (25th October, 1951)
(1)
On 26th June 1961, Cecil King was interviewed by the Royal Commission
on the Press on how editorial policy of the Daily
Mirror was decided.
I would say that on editorial policy Hugh Cudlipp and I, who have
been directors together for very many years, work closely and are
in general agreement on what sort of line we are going to take. I
suppose I see him very nearly every day, and if anything fresh crops
up we decide what we are going to do, but I very rarely see the editors.
He sees the editors and the editors are responsible to him.
(2)
On 26th June 1961, Hugh Cudlipp was
interviewed by the Royal Commission on the Press on how editorial
policy of the Daily Mirror
was decided.
Mr. King and I meet frequently; we know each other's minds and
the policies of our papers have been settled for very many years;
we're not suddenly going to be Right wing instead of Left Wing, or
unilateralists instead of multilateralists.
When Vicky drew cartoons for us, I can't remember a single occasion
on which he agreed with the policy of the paper, and Cassandra, might
be miles away from it, but both are given freedom of action.
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
