Daily Express

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Daily Express

Type Daily newspaper
Format Tabloid
Owner Richard Desmond
Publisher Northern and Shell Media
Editor Peter Hill
Founded 1900
Political allegiance Conservative/Right-Wing headquarters = 10 Lower Thames Street,
London EC3R 6EN
Headquarters {{{headquarters}}}
Circulation 761,637[1]
Website: www.express.co.uk

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. As of February 2007, it has a circulation of 761,637.[1] Circulation figures according to the Audited Bureau of Circulations, in October 2007 show gross sales of its long standing rival the Daily Mail are at 2,400,143, compared with 789,867 for the Daily Express. This is an increase of almost a third over the sales figures for the Daily Mail 25 years ago, when it sold 1.87 million copies a day. By comparison, the Daily Express was selling over 2 million copies a day, so its sales have reduced by 60% over the same period.

Express Newspapers publishes the Daily Express, Sunday Express (launched in 1918), Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday.

Contents

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 1916 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 records for newspaper sales several times throughout the 1930s.[2] 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 Alfred Bestall's Rupert Bear cartoon and satirical cartoons by Carl Giles. An infamous front page headline of these years was "Judea Declares War on Germany", published on March 24, 1933.

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.[2]

The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers. In 1982 Trafalgar House spun off its publishing interests into a new company, Fleet Holdings, but this succumbed to a hostile takeover by United Newspapers in 1985. Under United's ownership, the Express titles moved from Fleet Street to Blackfriars Road in 1989. As part of a marketing campaign designed to increase circulation, the paper was renamed The Express in 1996 (with the Sunday Express becoming "The Express on Sunday").

Express Newspapers was sold to publishing mogul Richard Desmond in 2000, by which time the names had reverted to "Daily Express" and "Sunday Express". In 2004 the newspaper moved to its present location on Lower Thames Street in the City of London.[2]

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. The Express Newspaper retains minority interest in Rupert Bear of 33.33% plus the right to publish Rupert Bear stories in certain Express publications.

In 2000, it was bought by Richard Desmond, publisher of a range of magazines including the celebrity magazine OK!. Controversy surrounded the acquisition because, at the time, Desmond also owned a selection of pornographic magazines such as Big Ones and Asian Babes (which led to him being nicknamed "Dirty Des" by Private Eye). 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 then editor, Rosie Boycott, and columnist Peter Hitchens moved to The Mail on Sunday, stating that he could not morally work for a newspaper owned by a pornographer. Boycott, despite her different politics, had an unlikely respect for Hitchens.[citation needed] Other stars of old Fleet Street, like the showbiz interviewer and feature writer Paul Callan, were brought in to restore some of the journalistic weight enjoyed by the paper in its heyday.

The Sunday Express was launched in 1918. It is currently edited by Martin Townsend.

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 late 1990s, as Tony Blair's New Labour government was at its most popular, the Express attempted to reinvent itself somewhat: it developed a less stridently right wing political stance than the Mail and, under editor Rosie Boycott, presented an agenda to the left of the Mail's, referring to itself as "the voice of New Britain". Since its acquisition by Richard Desmond, the paper has moved back considerably to the right. In the 2001 general election it supported the Labour Party, in 2004 switched its support to the Conservative Party.[3]

Unlike the Mail, the Daily Express does not have a "newspaper of the year" banner on its front page, and instead has one saying "The World's Greatest Newspaper".

Circulation figures to July 2007 show gross sales of 794,252 for the Daily Express, compared with 2,400,143 for the Daily Mail, twenty five years ago the Daily Express was selling over 2 million copies a day, the Mail was selling 1.87 million copies a day.

past stories

The Daily Express has a reputation for consistently printing conspiracy theories based on the death of Princess Diana as front page news, earning it the nickname, the Daily Ex-Princess; this is often satirised in Private Eye, the newspaper being labelled the Diana Express or the Di'ly Express, possibly due to Desmond's close friendship with regular Eye target Mohamed Fayed. [4] Even on July 7, 2006, the anniversary of the London bombings (used by most other newspapers to publish commemorations) the front page was given over to Diana. This tendency was also mocked on Have I Got News for You when on 6 November 2006, the day other papers reported the death sentence given to Saddam Hussein on their front pages, the Express led with “SPIES COVER UP DIANA 'MURDER'”. According to The Independent "The Diana stories appear on Mondays because Sunday is often a quiet day." [5] For the week beginning August 27, 2006, the paper printed the "Diana Dossier" in which it claimed to ask all the questions related to the death.[citation needed] Diana was on the front page every day (except Sunday) that week.[citation needed]

In the second half of 2007 the Daily Express, like most media outlets, gave a large amount of coverage to the missing toddler Madeleine McCann. Though the family say that some journalists may have "overstepped their mark" they acknowledged the benefits in keeping the case in the public eye[6], but feel that the coverage needs to be toned down as daily headlines are not necessarily helpful.[7]

However, the Express showed a great amount of dedication to the case. From August 3, 2007, the Express dedicated at least part of the next 100 front pages to Madeleine in a run that lasted until November 10, 2007. Of the 100, 82 of these were the main headline (often stylised by "MADELEINE" in red block capitals, plus an inevitable picture of the child).[8]

Present columnists:

Past columnists:

  1. ^ a b ABC Circulation Figures. Audit Bureau of Circulation. Retrieved on 2007-04-12.
  2. ^ a b c "Daily Express: A chequered history", BBC, January 25, 2001. 
  3. ^ "Express switches after Euro shift", BBC, April 22, 2004. 
  4. ^ For instance in the "Hackwatch" column of Private Eye #1174, December 19, 2006.
  5. ^ http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article346482.ece The Independent interview with Peter Hill 20 February 2006
  6. ^ "From Victims to Villains", ABC News, September 12, 2007. 
  7. ^ "I don’t think necessarily having newspaper headlines with the image of Madeleine being thrust on to people every single day helps. Clearly we have seen irresponsible reporting.", Sunday Herald, August 26, 2007. 
  8. ^ "Mailwatch". 
  • Derek Jameson, ‘Matthews, Victor Collin, Baron Matthews (1919–1995)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 9 September 2007

v • d • e
National newspapers of the United Kingdom
Broadsheets: The Herald • The Daily Telegraph • Financial Times • The Sunday Telegraph • The Sunday Times
Berliner: The Guardian • The Observer
Compact: Sunday Herald • The Times • The Independent • The Independent on Sunday
Middle-market tabloids: Daily Mail • Daily Express • The Mail on Sunday • Sunday Express
Tabloids: Daily Mirror • The Sun • Daily Star • Morning Star • Sunday Mirror • The People • The News of the World • Daily Star Sunday
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Express"
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