Vere Harold Esmond Harmsworth, 3rd Viscount Rothermere, known as Vere Harmsworth until 1978, was a British newspaper magnate.
Background
After the death of his father, Esmond Cecil Harmsworth, 2nd Viscount Rothermere, he also became chairman of parent Daily Mail and General Trust plc though he was unsuccessful in an attempt to combine the companies in a manner calculated to avoid taxation.
Career
Rothermere became the Chairman of Associated Newspapers in 1971 and was responsible for the relaunch of the Daily Mail as a tabloid, after which its circulation increased greatly under editor Sir David English. An artifact of this plan was the ownership of Associated Newspapers being vested in Associated Newspapers Holdings, ownership of which was split 50.2%-49.8% between DMGT and its wholly owned subsidiary Daily Mail & General Holdings. (Since then DMGH"s name has been transferred to ANH and the old DMGH become Derry Street Properties).
In 1992 English succeeded him as chairman of Associated Newspapers (but not of Associated Newspapers Holdings or the parent companies).
His newspapers" supported the Thatcher government, but following Tony Blair"s, landslide general election victory, Harmsworth defected to the Labour Party.