Background The Berry brothers entered the newspaper business in 1915, purchasing
The Sunday Times; they also purchased the
Financial Times in 1919. In 1922, Gomer Berry bought the Scottish
Daily Record, its sister paper the
Sunday Mail, and another newspaper, the
Glasgow Evening News, for £1 million. He formed a controlling company known as
Associated Scottish Newspapers Ltd. For his part, Edward Iliffe was already president and principal proprietor of the
Birmingham Post and the
Birmingham Mail, and owner of the
Coventry Evening Telegraph and the
Cambridge Daily News. The company's northern newspapers were part of the subsidiary
Allied Northern Newspapers. Allied Newspapers acquired the
Daily Sketch from Lords Beaverbrook and Rothmere in 1925; in 1926, the
Daily Sketch absorbed the
Daily Graphic. The
Daily Sketch became part of an Allied Newspapers subsidiary in 1928.
Growth In 1926, Allied Newspapers purchased
Amalgamated Press (AP), adding a thriving
story paper,
comic book, and book publishing company to their empire. In 1927, Allied Newspapers bought the paper-making operations of Frank Lloyd, the son of publisher
Edward Lloyd; Allied sold the business to
Bowater in 1936. In 1927 Allied Newspapers purchased
The Daily Telegraph from the 2nd
Harry Levy-Lawson, 1st Viscount Burnham, with Camrose becoming its editor-in-chief. In 1937 the consortium purchased
The Telegraph's rival,
The Morning Post. Camrose concentrated his efforts on
The Daily Telegraph, buying out his partners and merging
The Morning Post into
The Daily Telegraph. His son
Seymour served as Deputy Chairman of
The Daily Telegraph from 1939 to 1986. His other son
Michael also served as Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of the
Daily and
Sunday Telegraph newspapers. (
The Sunday Telegraph was established in February 1961.) In addition, Seymour Berry served as Vice Chairman of Amalgamated Press from 1942 to 1959 (when AP was acquired by the
Mirror Group).
Kemsley Newspapers With Lord Camrose concentrating on
The Daily Telegraph, Allied Newspapers was dissolved in 1945 and renamed
Kemsley Newspapers, with Gomer Berry (now known as Lord Kemsley) in charge. Meanwhile, Camrose retained Amalgamated Press. (As part of a previous agreement, Lord Camrose simultaneously sold the
Financial Times to
Brendan Bracken, who merged it with the
Financial News.) Lord Kemsley served as chairman of the
Reuters News Agency from 1951 to 1958. In 1952 Kemsley sold the
Daily Sketch (at that point known as the
Daily Graphic) to
Esmond Harmsworth, 2nd Viscount Rothermere, and
Associated Newspapers, the owner of the
Daily Mail. At that point, Lord Kemsley owned 31 newspapers across the U.K, though most were small regional papers. (At the time of the sale, Lord Kemsley was editor-in-chief of
The Sunday Times; his son
Lionel Berry, 2nd Viscount Kemsley, was deputy chairman.) == Allied/Kemsley newspaper holdings ==