Mary Howarth (1858 – ) was a British journalist and

newspaper editor An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

. Howarth was born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. She was the editor of the women's section for the '' Daily Mail'' in the late 1890s. In November 1903, she was appointed as the first editor of the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...

'', then part of the same group. Although sometimes described as the first female editor on Fleet Street, she was preceded by Delariviere Manley and

Rachel Beer Rachel Beer (''née'' Sassoon; 7 April 1858 – 29 April 1927) was an Indian-born British newspaper editor. She was editor-in-chief of ''The Observer'' and ''The Sunday Times''. Early life Rachel Sassoon was born in Bombay to Sassoon David Sas ...

.Hadley Freema
"Ladies of the press"
''The Guardian'', 16 June 2005 Almost all the staff at the ''Mirror'' were women, proprietor

Alfred Harmsworth Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (15 July 1865 – 14 August 1922), was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. As owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and the ''Daily Mirror'', he was an early developer of popular journal ...

saw it as a paper "for gentlewomen by gentlewomen".Jeff Wright,
The myth in the Mirror
, ''British Journalism Review'', Vol. 14, No. 3, 2003, pages 59-66 The first issue sold a relatively healthy 276,000 copies, but was soon down to 25,000.

Dennis Griffiths Dennis Griffiths (8 December 1933 – 24 December 2015) was a British journalist and historian, regarded as the founding father of newspaper history from the earliest days of Fleet Street. His ''Encyclopedia of the British Press 1422–1992'' has ...

(ed.) ''The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422–1992'', London & Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992, p.185 Harmsworth lost confidence in his plan for the paper. According to him, "women can't write and don't want to read".Preview.
/ref> He wrote to

Hamilton Fyfe Henry Hamilton Fyfe (29 September 1869 – 15 June 1951) was a British journalist and writer who was editor of both the newspapers the ''Daily Mirror'' and the '' Daily Herald''. Career Born in London, and educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh ...

to offer him the job of editor. Fyfe replied, confirming that he would be happy to take up the post, as soon as he could resign as editor of the ''

Morning Advertiser ''Morning Advertiser'' is one of the oldest news publications in the world, beginning as a newspaper in 1794 and being published in hard copy until 2020. In 2011, William Reed Ltd, bought '' The Publican'' from United Business Media and merged ...

''. Howarth, apparently only on loan from the ''Mail'', returned to her former job at the ''Mail'' after a week's publication. Fyfe took up the editorial post early in 1904, sacking almost all the female staff. He relaunched the paper with a focus on printing photographs of events.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Howarth, Mary Journalists from Manchester Date of birth missing Year of death missing British newspaper editors Daily Mirror people 1858 births Date of death missing