Advertisement by the Daily Mail for insurance against Zeppelin attacks during the First World War The Daily Mail, devised by Alfred Harmsworth (later Viscount Northcliffe) and his brother Harold (later Viscount Rothermere), was first published on 4 May 1896. It was an immediate success. [31]: 28 It cost a halfpenny at a time when other London dailies cost one penny, and was more populist in ...