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Daily Express
The Daily Express is a conservative, middle-market British tabloid newspaper. It is the flagship title of Express Newspapers and is currently owned by Richard Desmond. It has a circulation of just under a million.
Express Newspapers publishes the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday.
Daily Express - History
The Daily Express was founded in 1900 by Cyril Arthur Pearson, publisher of Pearson's Own and other titles. Pearson sold the title after losing his sight and it was bought in 1914 by the future Lord Beaverbrook. It was one of the first papers to carry gossip, sports, and women's features, and the first newspaper in Britain to have a crossword. It moved in 1931 to 133 Fleet Street, a specially-commissioned art deco building. Under Beaverbrook the newspaper achieved a phenomenally high circulation, setting new records for newspaper sales several times throughout the 1930s. Its success was partly due to an aggressive marketing campaign and a vigorous circulation war with other populist newspapers. Beaverbrook also discovered and encouraged a gifted editor named Arthur Christiansen, who showed an uncommon gift for staying in touch with the interests of the reading public. The paper also featured satirical cartoons by Carl Giles and Alfred Bestall's Rupert Bear.
The arrival of television and the public's changing interests took their toll on circulation, and following Beaverbrook's death in 1964, the paper's circulation declined for several years.
It switched from broadsheet to tabloid form in 1977 and was bought by United Newspapers in 1977. It was briefly renamed The Express in 1996.
It moved from Fleet Street to Blackfriars Road in 1989 and was sold to publishing mogul Richard Desmond in 2000. In 2004 it moved to its present location on Lower Thames Street in the City of London.
Daily Express - Desmond era
In 2000, it was bought by Richard Desmond, publisher of a range of magazines including the celebrity magazine OK!. Controversy surrounded the aquisition because, at the time, Desmond also owned a selection of pornographic magazines such as Big Ones and Asian Babes. He is still the owner of the most popular pornographic television channel in the UK, Television X. Desmond's purchase of the paper led to the departure of many staff including the editor, Rosie Boycott, and columnist Peter Hitchens.
The Daily Express has for many years been a rival of the Daily Mail, and each frequently attacks the other's journalistic integrity. In the 1990s The Express had a less stridently right wing political stance than the Mail and, under editor Rosie Boycott, presented a relatively liberal agenda. Since then, however, the paper has returned to its traditionalist roots. In the 2001 general election it supported the Labour Party, but in 2004 switched its support to the Conservative Party.
On October 31, 2005 UK Media Group Entertainment Rights secured majority interest from the Daily Express on Rupert Bear. They paid £6 million for a 66.6% control of the character. Expess Newspaper retains minority interest in Rupert Bear of 33.33% plus the right to publish Rupert Bear(R) comic strips in certain Express publications.
Daily Express - Editors
- Arthur Pearson (April 1900 - 1901)
- Fletcher Robinson (1901 - 1909)
- R D Blumenfeld (1909 - 1929)
- Beverley Baxter (1929 - October 1933)
- Arthur Christiansen (1933 - August 1957)
- Edward Pickering (1957 - 1961)
- Robert Edwards (acting) (November 1961 - February 1962)
- Roger Wood (1962 - May 1963)
- Robert Edwards (1963 - July 1965)
- Derek Marks (1965 - April 1971)
- Ian McColl (1971 - October 1974)
- Alastair Burnet (1974 - March 1976)
- Roy Wright (1976 - August 1977)
- Derek Jameson (1977 - June 1980))
- Arthur Firth (1980 - October 1981)
- Christopher Ward (1981 - April 1983)
- Sir Larry Lamb (1983 - April 1986)
- Sir Nicholas Lloyd (1986 - November 1995)
- Richard Addis (November 1995 - May 1998)
- Rosie Boycott (May 1998 - January 2001)
- Chris Williams (January 2001 - December 2003)
- Peter Hill (December 2003 - )
Other related archives1900, 1914, 1930s, 1931, 1977, 1996, 2000, 2001 general election, 2005, Alastair Burnet, Arthur Christiansen, Asian Babes, British, Carl Giles, Christopher Ward, Conservative Party, Cyril Arthur Pearson, Daily Mail, Daily Star, Derek Jameson, Edward Pickering, Entertainment Rights, Fleet Street, Labour Party, Lord Beaverbrook, October 31, Peter Hitchens, Richard Desmond, Rosie Boycott, Rupert Bear, Television X, art deco, crossword, middle-market, newspaper, pornographic, right wing, tabloid
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