BLUMENFELD, RALPH DAVID

BLUMENFELD, RALPH DAVID (1864–1948), British journalist. Blumenfeld was born in Wisconsin, the son of a newspaperman. He became a reporter on the Chicago Herald and later on the New York Herald. In New York, he entered the typesetting business, sold linotype machines in England, and made a considerable fortune. At the age of 36 he reentered journalism as news editor of the London Daily Mail and transferred to The Daily Express as foreign editor in 1902. After becoming a British subject in 1907, he was editor, 1904–1932, editor in chief from 1924, and chairman of the London Express Newspaper Company, 1915–1948. Blumenfeld edited The Daily Express for mass appeal, used large type in forceful style, stressed the "human angle" wherever possible, ran the paper as a pro-Conservative, pro-tariff reform daily, and raised the paper's circulation to two million a day. After his retirement in 1932, he visited Palestine, became a supporter of Zionism, and was active against antisemitism. Among the books he published were R.D.B.'s Diary 1887–1914 (1930), All in a Lifetime (1931), The Press in My Time (1933), and R.D.B.'s Procession (1935). -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: D. Griffiths (ed.), Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422–1992 (1992), 116–17; ODNB online.