Career
Born in Darwen, Ainsworth worked on local newspapers before becoming the news editor of the Weekly Dispatch. He next became Assistant Editor at Odhams Press, then Editor of John Bulletin. In 1925, Ainsworth became editor of The People on its takeover by Odhams.
At the time it had a circulation of 250,000 copies per issue but, within five years, he had increased this to 2,500,000, and ultimately raised it to five million.
Ainsworth remained Editor of The People until 1957 although, for his last ten years, Stuart Campbell was effectively in control.