Journalist and newspaper owner, born at South Shields in 1852. The son of a boot and shoemaker, Ritzema began his newspaper career as a printer-compositor in the office of the Shields Gazette where, through practical experience of newspaper production, he aquired a special genius for newspaper management.
In 1876, he moved to Middlesbrough as managing-editor of the Daily Gazette. Launched in 1869 by Hugh Gilzean-Reid, the paper had struggled in its early years to build a viable circulation, and Ritzema brought some much needed ideas and managerial skill to the enterprise. The two men divided up the management of the paper, with Gilzean-Reid retaining responsibility for its literary output and Ritzema taking over commercial control. As one Victorian account put it, "It soon became evident that, as regards newspaper enterprise, these two were made for each other." Working together, they re-branded the paper the North Eastern Daily Gazette and turned it into "one of the finest newspaper properties in the provinces." with circulations in Carlise, Durham, Yorkshire, and Lancashire.
Both men were always looking to promote their shared brand of Liberalism. Their columns were always open to radical and Liberal voices, including local trade unionists, who were given the chance to air their views, not just on union issues, but on wider political questions like Home Rule. Indeed, Thomas Dunn of the Cleveland Miners Association proved so adept at this, he was encouraged to become a full-time staff journalist on the paper.
In the early part of the 1880s, Ritzema and Gilzean-Reid's desire to increase the power of the Liberal press drew them into a loosely-formed syndicate of like-minded Liberals, which including Andrew Carnegie and Samuel Storey. At its height, the syndicate controlled eight daily and ten weekly papers. However, when this arrangement was wound up in 1886, Ritzema and Gilzean-Reid began looking for fresh challenges.
Travelling by train through North Lancashire, Ritzema found a new world to conquer. He tried unsuccessfully to buy an evening paper at several railway stations and found to his surprise that no local paper was produced between Bolton and Glasgow . With typical thoroughness, he set about gathering market information and identified a potential constituency of almost three million living within a 25-mile radius of Blackburn that was not then served by a local daily paper.
Convinced of this new opportunity, Ritzema again joined forces with Gilzean-Reid and, in October 1886, launched of the Northern Daily Telegraph. The paper proved to be a major success; so much so that the two men repeated the exercise in 1891 with the Birmingham Daily Argus.
Ritzema was the commercial and managerial genius behind this kind of operation, with the ability to identify and exploit strategic opportunities as well as handling everyday problems. When an accident closed down the printing machines of the Telegraph just a few hours before going to press, he negotiated the loan of a Corporation steam-roller, hired workmen to punch a hole in the wall of the printing works and passed a drive belt through to power the presses again. He was unflappable.
His commercial instincts, however, were tempered by a strong Liberal and Nonconformist conscience and he became increasingly uncomfortable with the way large commercial syndicates were feeding the readin public on a diet of sexual scandal, sensational court cases and prize money competitions. And although some features of this "new journalism" were adopted in the Gazette, including serialised stories, magazine tit-bits and special sporting editions, Ritzema still insisted on running his commercially-successful papers along "clean" lines.
A lifelong Methodist, abstainer, social reformer, and Sunday-school Superindendent, Ritzema remained active in local and national politics to the very end of his life, with several pamphlets on national and international affairs to his name. In 1895, he stood as an advanced Liberal candidate in what was a safe Conservative seat and served on the local Liberal Executive. He also supported Philip Snowdon's pioneering Labour campaign in Blackburn in the Khaki Election of 1900.
He died at his home, aged 86, in Quarry Glen, Blackburn in 1938.
Tony Nicholson © 2006
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