Daily Mail
Encyclopedia
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market
tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust
. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe
, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun
. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday
was launched in 1982. Scottish and Irish editions of the daily paper were launched in 1947 and 2006 respectively. The Daily Mail was Britain's first daily newspaper aimed at the newly literate "lower-middle class market resulting from mass education
, combining a low retail price with plenty of competitions, prizes and promotional gimmicks", and the first British paper to sell a million copies a day. It was, from the outset, a newspaper for women, being the first to provide features especially for them, and is still the only British newspaper whose readership is more than 50% female.
but switched to a compact format on 3 May 1971, the 75th anniversary of its founding. On this date it also absorbed the Daily Sketch
, which had been published as a tabloid by the same company. The publisher of the Mail, the Daily Mail and General Trust
, is currently a FTSE 250 company and the paper has a circulation of around two million which is the third-largest circulation
of any English language daily newspaper and one of the highest in the world.
Circulation figures according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations in July 2011 show gross daily sales of 2,050,132 for the Daily Mail. According to a December 2004 survey, 53% of Daily Mail readers voted for the Conservative Party, compared to 21% for Labour and 17% for the Liberal Democrats. The main concern of Viscount Rothermere
, the current chairman and main shareholder, is that the circulation be maintained. He testified before a House of Lords
select committee that "we need to allow editors the freedom to edit", and therefore the newspaper's editor was free to decide editorial policy, including its political allegiance. The Mail has been edited by Paul Dacre
since 1992.
Under Dacre, the Mail has a reputation for a conservative editorial stance on topics such as immigration, working women and teenage sex.
), was first published on 4 May 1896. It was an immediate success. It cost a halfpenny at a time when other London dailies cost one penny, and was more populist in tone and more concise in its coverage than its rivals. The planned issue was 100,000 copies but the print run on the first day was 397,215 and additional printing facilities had to be acquired to sustain a circulation which rose to 500,000 in 1899. Lord Salisbury
, 19th-century Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
, dismissed the Daily Mail as "a newspaper produced by office boys for office boys." By 1902, at the end of the Boer War
, the circulation was over a million, making it the largest in the world.
With Harold running the business side of the operation and Alfred as Editor, the Mail from the start adopted an imperialist
political stance, taking a patriotic line in the Second Boer War
, leading to claims that it was not reporting the issues of the day objectively. From the beginning, the Mail also set out to entertain its readers with human interest stories, serials, features and competitions (which were also the main means by which the Harmsworths promoted the paper).
In 1900, the Daily Mail began printing simultaneously in both Manchester and London, the first national newspaper to do so (in 1899, the Daily Mail had organised special trains to bring the London-printed papers north). The same production method was adopted in 1909 by the Daily Sketch
, in 1927 by the Daily Express
and eventually by virtually all the other national newspapers. Printing of the Scottish Daily Mail was switched from Edinburgh to the Deansgate plant in Manchester in 1968 and, for a while, The People
was also printed on the Mail presses in Deansgate. In 1987, printing at Deansgate ended and the northern editions were thereafter printed at other Associated Newspapers plants.
In 1906, the paper offered £1,000 for the first flight across the English Channel
and £10,000 for the first flight from London to Manchester
. Punch
magazine thought the idea preposterous and offered £10,000 for the first flight to Mars
, but by 1910 both the Mail's prizes had been won. (For full list see Daily Mail aviation prizes
.)
The paper was accused of warmongering before the outbreak of World War I
, when it reported that Germany was planning to crush the British Empire
. Northcliffe created controversy by advocating conscription
when the war broke out. On 21 May 1915, Northcliffe wrote a blistering attack on Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War
. Kitchener was considered a national hero, and, overnight, the paper's circulation dropped from 1,386,000 to 238,000. 1,500 members of the London Stock Exchange
ceremonially burned the unsold copies and launched a boycott against the Harmsworth Press. Prime Minister H. H. Asquith
accused the paper of being disloyal to the country.
When Kitchener died, the Mail reported it as a great stroke of luck for the British Empire. The paper then campaigned against Asquith, who resigned on 5 December 1916. His successor, David Lloyd George
, asked Northcliffe to be in his cabinet, hoping it would prevent him from criticising the government. Northcliffe declined.
In 1919, Alcock and Brown
made the first flight across the Atlantic winning a prize of £10,000 from the Daily Mail. In 1930, the Daily Mail made a great story of another aviation stunt, awarding another prize of £10,000 to Amy Johnson
for making the first solo flight from England to Australia.
The Daily Mail had begun the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1908. At first, Northcliffe had disdained this as a publicity stunt to sell advertising and he refused to attend. But his wife exerted pressure upon him and he changed his views, becoming more supportive. By 1922, the editorial side of the paper was fully engaged in promoting the benefits of modern appliances and technology to free its female readers from the drudgery of housework. The Mail maintained the event until selling it to Media 10 in 2009.
On 25 October 1924, the Daily Mail published the forged Zinoviev Letter
, which indicated that British Communists were planning violent revolution. This was a significant factor in the defeat of Ramsay MacDonald
's Labour Party
in the 1924 general election
, held four days later.
From 1923, Lord Rothermere and the Daily Mail formed an alliance with the other great press baron, Lord Beaverbrook. Their opponent was the Conservative party politician and leader Stanley Baldwin
. By 1929, George Ward Price was writing in the Mail that Baldwin should be deposed and Beaverbrook elected as leader. In early 1930, the two Lords launched the United Empire Party which the Daily Mail supported enthusiastically.
The rise of the new party dominated the newspaper and, even though Beaverbrook soon withdrew, Rothermere continued to campaign. Vice Admiral Taylor fought the first by-election for the United Empire Party in October, defeating the official Conservative candidate by 941 votes. Baldwin's position was now in doubt but, in 1931, Duff Cooper
won the key by-election at St George's, Westminster, beating the United Empire Party candidate, Sir Ernest Petter, supported by Rothermere, and this broke the political power of the press barons.
In 1927, the celebrated picture of the year Morning by Dod Proctor was bought by the Daily Mail for the Tate Gallery
.
Lord Rothermere was a friend and supporter of both Benito Mussolini
and Adolf Hitler
, which influenced the Mails political stance towards them during the 1930s. Rothermere's 1933 leader "Youth Triumphant" praised the new Nazi regime's accomplishments, and was subsequently used as propaganda by them.
Rothermere and the Mail were also editorially sympathetic to Oswald Mosley
and the British Union of Fascists
. Rothermere wrote an article entitled "Hurrah for the Blackshirts
" in January 1934, praising Mosley for his "sound, commonsense, Conservative doctrine". This support ended after violence at a BUF rally in Kensington Olympia later that year.
was the chief guest at the banquet and toasted it with a speech,
In reply, Lord Rothermere II had something to say about the newsprint shortages at that time for, while the Mail of 1896 was 8 pages, the Mail of 1946 was reduced to just 4.
The Daily Mail was transformed by its editor of the seventies and eighties, Sir David English
. Sir David began his Fleet Street career in 1951, joining The Daily Mirror before moving to The Daily Sketch, where he became features editor. It was the Sketch which brought him his first editorship, from 1969 to 1971. That year the Sketch was closed and he moved to take over the top job at the Mail, where he was to remain for more than 20 years. English transformed it from a struggling rival selling two million copies fewer than the Daily Express to a formidable journalistic powerhouse, which soared dramatically in popularity. After 20 years perfecting the Mail, Sir David English became editor-in-chief and chairman of Associated Newspapers in 1992.
The paper enjoyed a period of journalistic success in the 1980s, employing some of the most inventive writers in old Fleet Street
including the gossip columnist Nigel Dempster
, Lynda Lee Potter and sportswriter Ian Wooldridge
(who unlike some of his colleagues — the paper generally did not support sporting boycotts of white-minority-ruled South Africa — strongly opposed Apartheid). In 1982, a Sunday title, the Mail on Sunday, was launched (the Sunday Mail
was already the name of a newspaper in Scotland, owned by the Mirror Group.) There are Scottish editions of both the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, with different articles and columnists. In 1992, the current editor, Paul Dacre
, was appointed.
, starting in 1947. The circulation was poor though, falling to below 100,000 and the operation was rebased to Manchester
in December 1968. In 1995 the Scottish Daily Mail was relaunched printed in Glasgow. With a circulation in Dec 2009 of 113,771 making it the third highest daily newspaper sale in Scotland.
, the Irish Sunday newspaper acquired by Associated in 2001, was replaced by an Irish edition of the Mail on Sunday (the Irish Mail on Sunday), to tie in with the weekday newspaper.
Mail Today The newspaper entered India on 16 November 2007 with the launch of Mail Today, a 48-page compact size newspaper printed in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida with a print run of 110,000 copies. Based around a subscription model, the newspaper has the same fonts and feel as the Daily Mail and was set up with investment from Associated Newspapers and editorial assistance from the Daily Mail newsroom.
leader and then Prime Minister, the paper wrote positively about him and his reforms of the party.
The editorial stance changed to become critical of Tony Blair
in his later years as Prime Minister, and the Mail endorsed the Conservative Party
in the 2005 general election
.
The paper is generally critical of the BBC
, which it says is biased to the left. The Mail has also opposed the growing of genetically modified crops in the United Kingdom, a stance it shares with many of its left-wing critics.
On international affairs, the Mail broke with the establishment media consensus over the 2008 South Ossetia war
between Russia and Georgia
. The Mail accused the British government of dragging Britain into an unnecessary confrontation with Russia and of hypocrisy regarding its protests over Russian recognition of Abkhazia
and South Ossetia
's independence, citing the British government's own recognition of Kosovo
's independence from Russia's ally Serbia
.
Melanie Philips, once known as a voice for The Guardian
and New Statesman
moved to the right in the 1990s, writes for the Daily Mail, covering political and social issues from a conservative
perspective. She has defined herself as a liberal
who has "been mugged by reality".
in the Beatles song "A Day in the Life
", along with an account of the death of 21-year-old socialite
Tara Browne
in a car crash on 18 December 1966, which also appeared in the same issue.
In 1981, the Daily Mail ran an investigation into the Unification Church
, nicknamed The Moonies, and branded them "the church that breaks up families" in the article, which accused them of brainwashing converts. The Unification church, which always denied brainwashing, sued for libel and lost heavily. A jury awarded the Mail a record-breaking £750,000 - then the biggest libel payout. In 1983 the paper won a special British Press Award for a "relentless campaign against the malignant practices of the Unification Church."
On 16 July 1993 the Mail ran the headline "Abortion hope after 'gay genes' finding"; this headline has been widely criticised in subsequent years, for example as "perhaps the most infamous and disturbing headline of all" (of headlines from tabloid newspapers commenting on the Xq28
gene).
The Mail campaigned on the case of Stephen Lawrence
, a black teenager who was murdered in a racially motivated attack in Eltham, London
in April 1993. On 14 February 1997, the Mail led its front page with a picture of the five men accused of Lawrence's murder and the headline "MURDERERS", stating that it believed that the men had murdered Lawrence and adding "if we are wrong, let them sue us". This attracted praise from Paul Foot
and Peter Preston
.
On 9 October 2009 the Mail ran the headline "Hunger striker's £7m Big Mac: Tamil who cost London a fortune in policing was sneaking in fast-food"
The article stated that "Scotland Yard surveillance teams using specialist monitoring equipment had watched in disbelief" as Parameswaran Subramaniyan, a Tamil hunger striker protesting outside the Houses of Parliament, covertly broke his fast by secretly eating McDonald's burgers. When a request for an apology and retraction of this story was refused, Mr Subramanyam issued proceedings against the paper. In court, the newspaper's claim was shown to be entirely false; the Met superintendent in charge of the policing operation confirmed there had been no police surveillance team using the "specialist monitoring equipment". As a result, on 29 July 2010, Mr Subramanyam is understood to have accepted damages of £47,500 from the Daily Mail. The newspaper also paid his legal costs, withdrew the allegations and apologised "sincerely and unreservedly" for the distress that had been caused.
A 16 October 2009 Jan Moir article on the death of Stephen Gately
,
which many people felt was inaccurate, insensitive, and homophobic, generated over 25,000 complaints, the highest number of complaints for a newspaper article in the history of the Press Complaints Commission
.
Major advertisers such as Marks and Spencer responded to the criticism by asking for their own adverts to be removed from the Mail Online webpage around Moir's article. The Daily Mail removed all display ads from the webpage with the Gately column.
Current cartoon strips that are in the Daily Mail include Garfield
which moved from the Daily Express
in 2006 and is also included in The Mail on Sunday. I Don't Believe It is another 3/4 part strip, written by Dick Millington. Odd Streak and The Strip Show, which is shown in 3D are one part strips. Up and Running is a strip distributed by Knight Features and Fred Basset
follows the life of the dog of the same name in a two part strip in the Daily Mail since 8 July 1963. The Gambols are another feature in the Mail on Sunday.
The long-running Teddy Tail
cartoon strip, was first published on 5 April 1915 and was the first cartoon strip in a British newspaper. It ran for over 40 years to 1960, spawning the Teddy Tail League Children's Club and many annuals from 1934 to 1942 and again from 1949 to 1962. Teddy Tail
was a mouse, with friends Kitty Puss (a cat), Douglas Duck and Dr. Beetle. Teddy Tail is always shown with a knot in his tail.
, although it did back Tony Blair's
"New Labour"
in the 2001 general election
, where they were re-elected by a landslide.
Source: D. Butler and A. Sloman, British Political Facts, 1900–1975, p. 378.
Middle-market newspaper
A middle-market newspaper is one that attempts to cater to readers who want some entertainment value from their newspaper as well as sufficient coverage of significant news events. Middle-market status is the halfway point of a three-level continuum of journalistic seriousness; upmarket newspapers...
tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust
Daily Mail and General Trust
Daily Mail and General Trust plc is a British media conglomerate, one of the largest in Europe. In the UK, it has interests in national and regional newspapers, television and radio. The company has extensive activities based outside the UK, through Northcliffe Media, DMG Radio Australia, DMG World...
. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe
Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe
Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe rose from childhood poverty to become a powerful British newspaper and publishing magnate, famed for buying stolid, unprofitable newspapers and transforming them to make them lively and entertaining for the mass market.His company...
, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday
The Mail on Sunday
The Mail on Sunday is a British conservative newspaper, currently published in a tabloid format. First published in 1982 by Lord Rothermere, it became Britain's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper following the closing of The News of the World in July 2011...
was launched in 1982. Scottish and Irish editions of the daily paper were launched in 1947 and 2006 respectively. The Daily Mail was Britain's first daily newspaper aimed at the newly literate "lower-middle class market resulting from mass education
Elementary Education Act 1870
The Elementary Education Act 1870, commonly known as Forster's Education Act, set the framework for schooling of all children between ages 5 and 12 in England and Wales...
, combining a low retail price with plenty of competitions, prizes and promotional gimmicks", and the first British paper to sell a million copies a day. It was, from the outset, a newspaper for women, being the first to provide features especially for them, and is still the only British newspaper whose readership is more than 50% female.
Overview
The Mail was originally a broadsheetBroadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...
but switched to a compact format on 3 May 1971, the 75th anniversary of its founding. On this date it also absorbed the Daily Sketch
Daily Sketch
The Daily Sketch was a British national tabloid newspaper, founded in Manchester in 1909 by Sir Edward Hulton.It was bought in 1920 by Lord Rothermere's Daily Mirror Newspapers but in 1925 Rothermere offloaded it to William and Gomer Berry The Daily Sketch was a British national tabloid newspaper,...
, which had been published as a tabloid by the same company. The publisher of the Mail, the Daily Mail and General Trust
Daily Mail and General Trust
Daily Mail and General Trust plc is a British media conglomerate, one of the largest in Europe. In the UK, it has interests in national and regional newspapers, television and radio. The company has extensive activities based outside the UK, through Northcliffe Media, DMG Radio Australia, DMG World...
, is currently a FTSE 250 company and the paper has a circulation of around two million which is the third-largest circulation
Newspaper circulation
A newspaper's circulation is the number of copies it distributes on an average day. Circulation is one of the principal factors used to set advertising rates. Circulation is not always the same as copies sold, often called paid circulation, since some newspapers are distributed without cost to the...
of any English language daily newspaper and one of the highest in the world.
Circulation figures according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations in July 2011 show gross daily sales of 2,050,132 for the Daily Mail. According to a December 2004 survey, 53% of Daily Mail readers voted for the Conservative Party, compared to 21% for Labour and 17% for the Liberal Democrats. The main concern of Viscount Rothermere
Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere
Harold Jonathan Esmond Vere Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere succeeded his father as the 4th Viscount Rothermere in 1998...
, the current chairman and main shareholder, is that the circulation be maintained. He testified before a House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
select committee that "we need to allow editors the freedom to edit", and therefore the newspaper's editor was free to decide editorial policy, including its political allegiance. The Mail has been edited by Paul Dacre
Paul Dacre
Paul Michael Dacre is a British journalist and current editor of the British newspaper the Daily Mail. He is also editor in chief of the Mail group titles, which also includes The Mail on Sunday. He is also a director of the Daily Mail and General Trust plc and was a member of the Press Complaints...
since 1992.
Under Dacre, the Mail has a reputation for a conservative editorial stance on topics such as immigration, working women and teenage sex.
Early history
The Daily Mail, devised by Alfred Harmsworth (later Lord Northcliffe) and his brother Harold (later Lord RothermereHarold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere
Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere was a highly successful British newspaper proprietor, owner of Associated Newspapers Ltd. He is known in particular, with his brother Alfred Harmsworth, the later Viscount Northcliffe, for the development of the London Daily Mail and Daily Mirror....
), was first published on 4 May 1896. It was an immediate success. It cost a halfpenny at a time when other London dailies cost one penny, and was more populist in tone and more concise in its coverage than its rivals. The planned issue was 100,000 copies but the print run on the first day was 397,215 and additional printing facilities had to be acquired to sustain a circulation which rose to 500,000 in 1899. Lord Salisbury
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC , styled Lord Robert Cecil before 1865 and Viscount Cranborne from June 1865 until April 1868, was a British Conservative statesman and thrice Prime Minister, serving for a total of over 13 years...
, 19th-century Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
, dismissed the Daily Mail as "a newspaper produced by office boys for office boys." By 1902, at the end of the Boer War
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
, the circulation was over a million, making it the largest in the world.
With Harold running the business side of the operation and Alfred as Editor, the Mail from the start adopted an imperialist
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
political stance, taking a patriotic line in the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
, leading to claims that it was not reporting the issues of the day objectively. From the beginning, the Mail also set out to entertain its readers with human interest stories, serials, features and competitions (which were also the main means by which the Harmsworths promoted the paper).
In 1900, the Daily Mail began printing simultaneously in both Manchester and London, the first national newspaper to do so (in 1899, the Daily Mail had organised special trains to bring the London-printed papers north). The same production method was adopted in 1909 by the Daily Sketch
Daily Sketch
The Daily Sketch was a British national tabloid newspaper, founded in Manchester in 1909 by Sir Edward Hulton.It was bought in 1920 by Lord Rothermere's Daily Mirror Newspapers but in 1925 Rothermere offloaded it to William and Gomer Berry The Daily Sketch was a British national tabloid newspaper,...
, in 1927 by the Daily Express
Daily Express
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...
and eventually by virtually all the other national newspapers. Printing of the Scottish Daily Mail was switched from Edinburgh to the Deansgate plant in Manchester in 1968 and, for a while, The People
The People
The People, previously known as the Sunday People, is a British tabloid Sunday-only newspaper. The paper was founded on 16 October 1881.It is published by the Trinity Mirror Group.In July 2011 it had an average daily circulation of 806,544....
was also printed on the Mail presses in Deansgate. In 1987, printing at Deansgate ended and the northern editions were thereafter printed at other Associated Newspapers plants.
In 1906, the paper offered £1,000 for the first flight across the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
and £10,000 for the first flight from London to Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
magazine thought the idea preposterous and offered £10,000 for the first flight to Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
, but by 1910 both the Mail's prizes had been won. (For full list see Daily Mail aviation prizes
Daily Mail aviation prizes
Between 1907 and 1925 the Daily Mail newspaper, initially on the initiative of its proprietor Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, awarded numerous prizes for achievements in aviation. The newspaper would stipulate the amount of a prize for the first aviators to perform a particular task in...
.)
The paper was accused of warmongering before the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, when it reported that Germany was planning to crush the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. Northcliffe created controversy by advocating conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
when the war broke out. On 21 May 1915, Northcliffe wrote a blistering attack on Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War
Secretary of State for War
The position of Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a British cabinet-level position, first held by Henry Dundas . In 1801 the post became that of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The position was re-instated in 1854...
. Kitchener was considered a national hero, and, overnight, the paper's circulation dropped from 1,386,000 to 238,000. 1,500 members of the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
ceremonially burned the unsold copies and launched a boycott against the Harmsworth Press. Prime Minister H. H. Asquith
H. H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KG, PC, KC served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916...
accused the paper of being disloyal to the country.
When Kitchener died, the Mail reported it as a great stroke of luck for the British Empire. The paper then campaigned against Asquith, who resigned on 5 December 1916. His successor, David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
, asked Northcliffe to be in his cabinet, hoping it would prevent him from criticising the government. Northcliffe declined.
Inter-war period
As Lord Northcliffe aged, his grip on the paper slackened and he might have nothing to do with it for months at a time. But light-hearted stunts might enliven him, such as the Hat campaign in the winter of 1920. This was a contest with a prize of £100 for new design of hat — a subject in which Northcliffe took a particular interest. There were 40,000 entries and the winner was a cross between a top hat and a bowler christened the Daily Mail Sandringham Hat. The paper subsequently promoted the wearing of it but without much success. In 1922, when Lord Northcliffe died, Lord Rothermere took full control of the paper.In 1919, Alcock and Brown
Alcock and Brown
British aviators Alcock and Brown made the first non-stop transatlantic flight in June 1919. They flew a modified World War I Vickers Vimy bomber from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Connemara, County Galway, Ireland...
made the first flight across the Atlantic winning a prize of £10,000 from the Daily Mail. In 1930, the Daily Mail made a great story of another aviation stunt, awarding another prize of £10,000 to Amy Johnson
Amy Johnson
Amy Johnson CBE, was a pioneering English aviator. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, Johnson set numerous long-distance records during the 1930s...
for making the first solo flight from England to Australia.
The Daily Mail had begun the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1908. At first, Northcliffe had disdained this as a publicity stunt to sell advertising and he refused to attend. But his wife exerted pressure upon him and he changed his views, becoming more supportive. By 1922, the editorial side of the paper was fully engaged in promoting the benefits of modern appliances and technology to free its female readers from the drudgery of housework. The Mail maintained the event until selling it to Media 10 in 2009.
On 25 October 1924, the Daily Mail published the forged Zinoviev Letter
Zinoviev Letter
The "Zinoviev Letter" refers to a controversial document published by the British press in 1924, allegedly sent from the Communist International in Moscow to the Communist Party of Great Britain...
, which indicated that British Communists were planning violent revolution. This was a significant factor in the defeat of Ramsay MacDonald
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms....
's Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
in the 1924 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1924
- Seats summary :- References :* F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987* - External links :* * *...
, held four days later.
From 1923, Lord Rothermere and the Daily Mail formed an alliance with the other great press baron, Lord Beaverbrook. Their opponent was the Conservative party politician and leader Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC was a British Conservative politician, who dominated the government in his country between the two world wars...
. By 1929, George Ward Price was writing in the Mail that Baldwin should be deposed and Beaverbrook elected as leader. In early 1930, the two Lords launched the United Empire Party which the Daily Mail supported enthusiastically.
The rise of the new party dominated the newspaper and, even though Beaverbrook soon withdrew, Rothermere continued to campaign. Vice Admiral Taylor fought the first by-election for the United Empire Party in October, defeating the official Conservative candidate by 941 votes. Baldwin's position was now in doubt but, in 1931, Duff Cooper
Duff Cooper
Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich GCMG, DSO, PC , known as Duff Cooper, was a British Conservative Party politician, diplomat and author. He wrote six books, including an autobiography, Old Men Forget, and a biography of Talleyrand...
won the key by-election at St George's, Westminster, beating the United Empire Party candidate, Sir Ernest Petter, supported by Rothermere, and this broke the political power of the press barons.
In 1927, the celebrated picture of the year Morning by Dod Proctor was bought by the Daily Mail for the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
.
Lord Rothermere was a friend and supporter of both Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
and Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, which influenced the Mails political stance towards them during the 1930s. Rothermere's 1933 leader "Youth Triumphant" praised the new Nazi regime's accomplishments, and was subsequently used as propaganda by them.
Rothermere and the Mail were also editorially sympathetic to Oswald Mosley
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
and the British Union of Fascists
British Union of Fascists
The British Union was a political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1932 by Sir Oswald Mosley as the British Union of Fascists, in 1936 it changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists and then in 1937 to simply the British Union...
. Rothermere wrote an article entitled "Hurrah for the Blackshirts
Blackshirts
The Blackshirts were Fascist paramilitary groups in Italy during the period immediately following World War I and until the end of World War II...
" in January 1934, praising Mosley for his "sound, commonsense, Conservative doctrine". This support ended after violence at a BUF rally in Kensington Olympia later that year.
Post-war history
On 5 May 1946, the Daily Mail celebrated its Golden Jubilee. Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
was the chief guest at the banquet and toasted it with a speech,
In reply, Lord Rothermere II had something to say about the newsprint shortages at that time for, while the Mail of 1896 was 8 pages, the Mail of 1946 was reduced to just 4.
The Daily Mail was transformed by its editor of the seventies and eighties, Sir David English
David English (journalist)
Sir David English was a British journalist and newspaper editor, best known for his twenty-year editorship of the Daily Mail.-Early life:...
. Sir David began his Fleet Street career in 1951, joining The Daily Mirror before moving to The Daily Sketch, where he became features editor. It was the Sketch which brought him his first editorship, from 1969 to 1971. That year the Sketch was closed and he moved to take over the top job at the Mail, where he was to remain for more than 20 years. English transformed it from a struggling rival selling two million copies fewer than the Daily Express to a formidable journalistic powerhouse, which soared dramatically in popularity. After 20 years perfecting the Mail, Sir David English became editor-in-chief and chairman of Associated Newspapers in 1992.
The paper enjoyed a period of journalistic success in the 1980s, employing some of the most inventive writers in old Fleet Street
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a street in central London, United Kingdom, named after the River Fleet, a stream that now flows underground. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s...
including the gossip columnist Nigel Dempster
Nigel Dempster
Nigel Richard Patton Dempster was a British journalist, author, broadcaster and diarist. Best known for his celebrity gossip columns in newspapers, his work appeared in the Daily Express and Daily Mail and also in Private Eye magazine...
, Lynda Lee Potter and sportswriter Ian Wooldridge
Ian Wooldridge
Ian Wooldridge, OBE was a British sports journalist. He was with the Daily Mail for nearly 50 years. He died from cancer...
(who unlike some of his colleagues — the paper generally did not support sporting boycotts of white-minority-ruled South Africa — strongly opposed Apartheid). In 1982, a Sunday title, the Mail on Sunday, was launched (the Sunday Mail
Sunday Mail (Scotland)
The Sunday Mail is a Scottish tabloid newspaper published every Sunday. It is the sister paper of the Daily Record and is owned by Trinity Mirror and as such has a left-wing outlook which in turn tends to guide Scottish political debate in that direction.The Sunday Mail is read by over one million...
was already the name of a newspaper in Scotland, owned by the Mirror Group.) There are Scottish editions of both the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, with different articles and columnists. In 1992, the current editor, Paul Dacre
Paul Dacre
Paul Michael Dacre is a British journalist and current editor of the British newspaper the Daily Mail. He is also editor in chief of the Mail group titles, which also includes The Mail on Sunday. He is also a director of the Daily Mail and General Trust plc and was a member of the Press Complaints...
, was appointed.
Scottish
Daily Mail The Scottish Daily Mail was published as a separate title from EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, starting in 1947. The circulation was poor though, falling to below 100,000 and the operation was rebased to Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
in December 1968. In 1995 the Scottish Daily Mail was relaunched printed in Glasgow. With a circulation in Dec 2009 of 113,771 making it the third highest daily newspaper sale in Scotland.
Irish edition
The Daily Mail officially entered the Irish market with the launch of a local version of the paper on 6 February 2006; free copies of the paper were distributed on that day in some locations to publicise the launch. Its masthead differs from that of UK versions by having a green rectangle with the word "IRISH", instead of the Royal Arms. The Irish version includes stories of Irish interest alongside content from the UK version. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the Irish edition had a circulation of 63,511 for July 2007, falling to an average of 49,090 for the second half of 2009. Since 24 September 2006 Ireland on SundayIreland on Sunday
Ireland on Sunday was a Sunday newspaper in the Republic of Ireland, published by Associated Newspapers Ireland Limited, a subsidiary of the Daily Mail and General Trust plc...
, the Irish Sunday newspaper acquired by Associated in 2001, was replaced by an Irish edition of the Mail on Sunday (the Irish Mail on Sunday), to tie in with the weekday newspaper.
Continental and Overseas Daily Mail
Two foreign editions were begun in 1904 and 1905; the former titled the "Overseas Daily Mail", covering the world, and the latter titled the "Continental Daily Mail", covering Europe and North Africa.Mail Today The newspaper entered India on 16 November 2007 with the launch of Mail Today, a 48-page compact size newspaper printed in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida with a print run of 110,000 copies. Based around a subscription model, the newspaper has the same fonts and feel as the Daily Mail and was set up with investment from Associated Newspapers and editorial assistance from the Daily Mail newsroom.
Libel lawsuits
The Daily Mail has been involved in a number of notable libel suits. Among them are:- 2001, February—Businessman Alan SugarAlan SugarAlan Michael Sugar, Baron Sugar is a British entrepreneur, media personality and political advisor. From humble origins in the East End of London, Sugar now has an estimated fortune of £770m , and was ranked 89th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2011...
was awarded £100,000 in damages following a story commenting on his stewardship of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. - 2003, October—Actress Diana RiggDiana RiggDame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE is an English actress. She is probably best known for her portrayals of Emma Peel in The Avengers and Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service....
awarded £30,000 in damages over a story commenting on aspects of her personality. - 2006, May—£100,000 damages for Elton JohnElton JohnSir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
, following false accusations concerning his manners and behaviour. - 2009, January—£30,000 award to Dr Austen Ivereigh, who had worked for Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, following false accusations made by the newspaper concerning abortion.
- 2010, July—£47,500 award to Parameswaran Subramanyam for falsely claiming that he secretly sustained himself with hamburgers during a 23-day hunger strike in Parliament Square to draw attention to the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
- 2011, November-the former lifestyle adviser to Cherie BlairCherieCherie is a French pop and dance music singer whose 2004 hit "I'm Ready" hit #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.- Singles :*I'm Ready*Older Than My Years *Betcha Never-See also:...
and Tony BlairTony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, Carole CaplinCarole CaplinCarole Caplin was the style adviser to Cherie Blair and a fitness adviser to Tony Blair, when he was the British Prime Minister...
received "substantial" libel damages over claims in the Mail that she was about to reveal intimate details about her former clients.
Editorial stance
In the late 1960s, the paper went through a phase of being liberal on social issues like corporal punishment, but soon returned to its traditional conservative line. In Tony Blair's early years as LabourLabour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
leader and then Prime Minister, the paper wrote positively about him and his reforms of the party.
The editorial stance changed to become critical of Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
in his later years as Prime Minister, and the Mail endorsed the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
in the 2005 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
.
The paper is generally critical of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, which it says is biased to the left. The Mail has also opposed the growing of genetically modified crops in the United Kingdom, a stance it shares with many of its left-wing critics.
On international affairs, the Mail broke with the establishment media consensus over the 2008 South Ossetia war
2008 South Ossetia war
The 2008 South Ossetia War or Russo-Georgian War was an armed conflict in August 2008 between Georgia on one side, and Russia and separatist governments of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on the other....
between Russia and Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
. The Mail accused the British government of dragging Britain into an unnecessary confrontation with Russia and of hypocrisy regarding its protests over Russian recognition of Abkhazia
Abkhazia
Abkhazia is a disputed political entity on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus.Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny...
and South Ossetia
South Ossetia
South Ossetia or Tskhinvali Region is a disputed region and partly recognized state in the South Caucasus, located in the territory of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the former Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic....
's independence, citing the British government's own recognition of Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
's independence from Russia's ally Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
.
Melanie Philips, once known as a voice for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
moved to the right in the 1990s, writes for the Daily Mail, covering political and social issues from a conservative
Social conservatism
Social Conservatism is primarily a political, and usually morally influenced, ideology that focuses on the preservation of what are seen as traditional values. Social conservatism is a form of authoritarianism often associated with the position that the federal government should have a greater role...
perspective. She has defined herself as a liberal
Classical liberalism
Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets....
who has "been mugged by reality".
Famous stories
On 7 January 1967, the Mail published a story, "The holes in our roads", about potholes, giving the examples of Blackburn where it said there were 4,000 holes. This detail was then immortalised by John LennonJohn Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
in the Beatles song "A Day in the Life
A Day in the Life
"A Day in the Life" is a song by The Beatles, the final track on the group's 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Credited to Lennon–McCartney, the song comprises distinct segments written independently by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, with orchestral additions...
", along with an account of the death of 21-year-old socialite
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
Tara Browne
Tara Browne
The Honourable Tara Browne was a young London socialite. He is perhaps most famous today for serving as an inspiration of the Beatles song "A Day in the Life".-Biography:...
in a car crash on 18 December 1966, which also appeared in the same issue.
In 1981, the Daily Mail ran an investigation into the Unification Church
Unification Church
The Unification Church is a new religious movement founded by Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon. In 1954, the Unification Church was formally and legally established in Seoul, South Korea, as The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity . In 1994, Moon gave the church...
, nicknamed The Moonies, and branded them "the church that breaks up families" in the article, which accused them of brainwashing converts. The Unification church, which always denied brainwashing, sued for libel and lost heavily. A jury awarded the Mail a record-breaking £750,000 - then the biggest libel payout. In 1983 the paper won a special British Press Award for a "relentless campaign against the malignant practices of the Unification Church."
On 16 July 1993 the Mail ran the headline "Abortion hope after 'gay genes' finding"; this headline has been widely criticised in subsequent years, for example as "perhaps the most infamous and disturbing headline of all" (of headlines from tabloid newspapers commenting on the Xq28
Xq28
Xq28 is a genetic marker on the X chromosome found by Dean Hamer and others in 1993. Hamer's study led to his belief that they found a link between the Xq28 marker and male homosexuality, but the original study's results have been disputed.-1993 study:...
gene).
The Mail campaigned on the case of Stephen Lawrence
Stephen Lawrence
Stephen Lawrence was a black British teenager from Eltham, southeast London, who was stabbed to death while waiting for a bus on the evening of 22 April 1993....
, a black teenager who was murdered in a racially motivated attack in Eltham, London
Eltham, London
-Parks and open spaces:There is a large variety of open green space in Eltham, in the form of parkland, fields and woodland.*Avery Hill Park is large, open parkland, situated to the east of Eltham. It is most notable for its Winter Garden, a hothouse containing tropical trees and plants from around...
in April 1993. On 14 February 1997, the Mail led its front page with a picture of the five men accused of Lawrence's murder and the headline "MURDERERS", stating that it believed that the men had murdered Lawrence and adding "if we are wrong, let them sue us". This attracted praise from Paul Foot
Paul Foot
Paul Mackintosh Foot was a British investigative journalist, political campaigner, author, and long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party...
and Peter Preston
Peter Preston
Peter John Preston is a British journalist and author. He was educated at Loughborough Grammar School and St John's College, Oxford, where he edited the student paper Cherwell...
.
On 9 October 2009 the Mail ran the headline "Hunger striker's £7m Big Mac: Tamil who cost London a fortune in policing was sneaking in fast-food"
The article stated that "Scotland Yard surveillance teams using specialist monitoring equipment had watched in disbelief" as Parameswaran Subramaniyan, a Tamil hunger striker protesting outside the Houses of Parliament, covertly broke his fast by secretly eating McDonald's burgers. When a request for an apology and retraction of this story was refused, Mr Subramanyam issued proceedings against the paper. In court, the newspaper's claim was shown to be entirely false; the Met superintendent in charge of the policing operation confirmed there had been no police surveillance team using the "specialist monitoring equipment". As a result, on 29 July 2010, Mr Subramanyam is understood to have accepted damages of £47,500 from the Daily Mail. The newspaper also paid his legal costs, withdrew the allegations and apologised "sincerely and unreservedly" for the distress that had been caused.
A 16 October 2009 Jan Moir article on the death of Stephen Gately
Stephen Gately
Stephen Patrick David Gately was an Irish pop singer–songwriter, actor, dancer, musician and author, who, with Ronan Keating, was one of two lead singers of the pop group Boyzone. All of Boyzone's studio albums hit number one in the United Kingdom, their third being their most successful...
,
which many people felt was inaccurate, insensitive, and homophobic, generated over 25,000 complaints, the highest number of complaints for a newspaper article in the history of the Press Complaints Commission
Press Complaints Commission
The Press Complaints Commission is a voluntary regulatory body for British printed newspapers and magazines, consisting of representatives of the major publishers. The PCC is funded by the annual levy it charges newspapers and magazines...
.
Major advertisers such as Marks and Spencer responded to the criticism by asking for their own adverts to be removed from the Mail Online webpage around Moir's article. The Daily Mail removed all display ads from the webpage with the Gately column.
Supplements and features
Daily Mail
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Mail on Sunday
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Regular cartoon strips
- GarfieldGarfieldGarfield is a comic strip created by Jim Davis. Published since June 19, 1978, it chronicles the life of the title character, the cat Garfield ; his owner, Jon Arbuckle; and Arbuckle's dog, Odie...
- I Don't Believe It (discontinued)
- Odd Streak
- The Strip Show
- Chloe and Co. (by Knight Features)
- Up and Running (by Knight Features)
- The GambolsThe GambolsThe Gambols is a British comic strip created by Barry Appleby in 1950 which was originally published in the Daily Express and is now seen in the Mail on Sunday....
(Sunday, in the Cartoons section) - Fred BassetFred BassetFred Basset is a comic strip about a male basset hound. The cartoon was created by Scottish cartoonist Alex Graham and published first in the Daily Mail on July 8, 1963. It has since been syndicated around the world....
- PeanutsPeanutsPeanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
(Sunday, in the Cartoons section)
Current cartoon strips that are in the Daily Mail include Garfield
Garfield
Garfield is a comic strip created by Jim Davis. Published since June 19, 1978, it chronicles the life of the title character, the cat Garfield ; his owner, Jon Arbuckle; and Arbuckle's dog, Odie...
which moved from the Daily Express
Daily Express
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 2006 and is also included in The Mail on Sunday. I Don't Believe It is another 3/4 part strip, written by Dick Millington. Odd Streak and The Strip Show, which is shown in 3D are one part strips. Up and Running is a strip distributed by Knight Features and Fred Basset
Fred Basset
Fred Basset is a comic strip about a male basset hound. The cartoon was created by Scottish cartoonist Alex Graham and published first in the Daily Mail on July 8, 1963. It has since been syndicated around the world....
follows the life of the dog of the same name in a two part strip in the Daily Mail since 8 July 1963. The Gambols are another feature in the Mail on Sunday.
The long-running Teddy Tail
Teddy Tail
Teddy Tail was a cartoon mouse featured in The Daily Mail from 5 April 1915 and was the first daily cartoon strip in a British newspaper, The character survived until the 1960s with several artists drawing him for Newspaper strips and the varied Annuals...
cartoon strip, was first published on 5 April 1915 and was the first cartoon strip in a British newspaper. It ran for over 40 years to 1960, spawning the Teddy Tail League Children's Club and many annuals from 1934 to 1942 and again from 1949 to 1962. Teddy Tail
Teddy Tail
Teddy Tail was a cartoon mouse featured in The Daily Mail from 5 April 1915 and was the first daily cartoon strip in a British newspaper, The character survived until the 1960s with several artists drawing him for Newspaper strips and the varied Annuals...
was a mouse, with friends Kitty Puss (a cat), Douglas Duck and Dr. Beetle. Teddy Tail is always shown with a knot in his tail.
Online media
The Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday publish most of their news online in a service called the Mail Online which is viewed daily by nearly 3 million users. Most of the site can be viewed for free and without registration, though some services require users to register.Notable regular contributors (present)
Journalists
|
Des Kelly Des Kelly is a British journalist and broadcaster. The award-winning sports columnist for The Daily Mail appears In the paper every Saturday, having joined in 2004.... Ann Leslie Dame Ann Elizabeth Mary Leslie DBE is a British journalist who writes for the Daily Mail.-Education:... Quentin Letts Quentin Richard Stephen Letts is a British journalist and theatre critic, writing for The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Oldie and New Statesman, and previously for The Times.- Early life :... Richard Littlejohn Richard William Littlejohn is an English author, broadcaster and journalist. He is noted for his Conservative views and currently writes a twice-weekly column for the Daily Mail.... Edward Lucas (journalist) Edward Lucas is a British journalist.Lucas is International Editor of The Economist, the London-based global newsweekly and also oversees the paper’s political coverage of Central and Eastern Europe. He has been covering eastern Europe since 1986, and was the Moscow bureau chief from 1998-2002,... David Mellor David John Mellor, QC is a British politician, non-practising barrister, broadcaster, journalist and football pundit. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet of Prime Minister John Major as Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Secretary of State for National Heritage , before... |
Melanie Phillips Melanie Phillips is a British journalist and author. She began her career on the left of the political spectrum, writing for such publications as The Guardian and New Statesman. In the 1990s she moved to the right, and she now writes for the Daily Mail newspaper, covering political and social... Graham Poll Graham Poll is an English former football referee in the Premier League and is considered the best English referee of the last 25 years in a list maintained by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics... Norman Tebbit Norman Beresford Tebbit, Baron Tebbit, CH, PC , is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet from 1981 to 1987 as Secretary of State for Employment... Michael Winner Michael Robert Winner is a British film director and producer, active in both Europe and the United States, also known as a food critic for the Sunday Times.-Early life and early career :... Janet Street-Porter Janet Street-Porter is a British media personality, journalist and television presenter. She was editor for two years of The Independent on Sunday. She relinquished the job to become editor-at-large in 2002... |
Cartoonists
Photographers
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Past writers
- Paul CallanPaul CallanThis article is about the British journalist. For the television character, see Miracles.Paul Callan is a British journalist and editor who has worked on many national newspapers.-Early career:...
- William Comyns BeaumontWilliam Comyns BeaumontWilliam Comyns Beaumont, also known as Comyns Beaumont, was a British journalist, author, and lecturer. Beaumont was a staff writer for the Daily Mail and eventually became editor of the Bystander in 1903 and then The Graphic in 1932.Beaumont was an eccentric with several unusual beliefs, many of...
(left in 1903 to create The Bystander) - Anthony Cave BrownAnthony Cave BrownAnthony Cave Brown was an English-American journalist, espionage non-fiction writer and historian.-Early years:...
(worked from mid-1950s to mid-1960s, won "Reporter of the Year" award in 1958) - Peter WildebloodPeter WildebloodPeter Wildeblood was a British-Canadian journalist, novelist, playwright, and gay rights campaigner. He was one of the first men in the UK to publicly declare his homosexuality.-Career:...
(the paper's former royal correspondent diplomatic editor, was prosecuted for homosexuality in a high profile trial in the 1950s) - Nigel DempsterNigel DempsterNigel Richard Patton Dempster was a British journalist, author, broadcaster and diarist. Best known for his celebrity gossip columns in newspapers, his work appeared in the Daily Express and Daily Mail and also in Private Eye magazine...
- Percy IzzardPercy IzzardPercy W. D. Izzard OBE was the well-known gardening correspondent on the Daily Mail newspaper and author of several books on gardening.- Life and works :...
Gardening and country life correspondent for over 50 years. - Ralph IzzardRalph IzzardRalph William Burdick Izzard, OBE, was an English journalist, author, adventurer, and British Naval Intelligence officer ....
Journalist, author, adventurer and one time Berlin Bureau Chief, Izzard was a staff writer for the Mail beginning in 1931 and continued contributing until his death in 1992, with the only interruption being his service in British Naval Intelligence during WWII. - Paul Johnson (left the Mail in 2001)
- John JunorJohn JunorSir John Donald Brown Junor was a Scottish journalist and editor-in-chief of the Sunday Express, having previously worked as a columnist there. He then moved to the Mail on Sunday....
- Lynda Lee-PotterLynda Lee-PotterLynda Lee-Potter OBE was a columnist for the British newspaper the Daily Mail.-Early years:...
(wrote for the Mail from 1967 until her death in 2004) - William Le QueuxWilliam Le QueuxWilliam Tufnell Le Queux was an Anglo-French journalist and writer. He was also a diplomat , a traveller , a flying buff who officiated at the first British air meeting at Doncaster in 1909, and a wireless pioneer who broadcast music from his own station long...
A prolific writer of invasion literatureInvasion literatureInvasion literature was a historical literary genre most notable between 1871 and the First World War . The genre first became recognizable starting in Britain in 1871 with The Battle of Dorking, a fictional account of an invasion of England by Germany...
in the pre-First World War period. - Valentine Williams (1883–1946) General news correspondent and, during the First World War, chief of the Daily Mail war service. Later a popular mystery novelist.
- Keith WaterhouseKeith WaterhouseKeith Spencer Waterhouse CBE was a novelist, newspaper columnist, and the writer of many television series.-Biography:Keith Waterhouse was born in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
- Herbert Wrigley WilsonHerbert Wrigley WilsonHerbert Wrigley Wilson , known often only as H. W. Wilson, was a British journalist and naval historian.He was the eldest son of the Reverend George Edwin Wilson and, like three of his five brothers, became a journalist...
, naval historian and chief leader writer in the paper's early years - Ian WooldridgeIan WooldridgeIan Wooldridge, OBE was a British sports journalist. He was with the Daily Mail for nearly 50 years. He died from cancer...
, a sportswriter on the paper from 1961 until his death in 2007
Political allegiance
The Daily Mail is a traditional supporter of the Conservative PartyConservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
, although it did back Tony Blair's
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
"New Labour"
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
in the 2001 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2001
The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...
, where they were re-elected by a landslide.
Editors
- 1896: S. J. Pryor
- 1899: Thomas Marlowe
- 1922: W. G. FishW. G. FishWalter George Fish , known as W. G. Fish, was a British newspaper editor.Born in Accrington, Fish studied at Westminster City School before entering journalism. He joined the Daily Mail in 1904, and was promoted to news editor in 1906, quickly gaining attention by providing the first reports of Dr...
- 1930: Oscar PulvermacherOscar PulvermacherOscar Pulvermacher was an Editor-in-Chief and member of the Board of Directors for The Daily Mail, a popular English tabloid.-Family:He was born to Isaac Pulvermacher and Augusta Fiedler...
- 1930: William McWhirterWilliam McWhirterWilliam McWhirter was a Scottish electrical engineer, grandfather of Norris McWhirter, who invented the combined voltmeter and ammeter, from which such subsequent meters were developed.-Career:...
- 1931: W. L. Warden
- 1935: Arthur Cranfield
- 1939: Bob Prew
- 1944: Sidney Horniblow
- 1947: Frank OwenFrank Owen (politician)Humphrey Frank Owen was a British journalist and Liberal Member of Parliament. He was a Lloyd Georgite Liberal MP for Hereford between 1929 and 1931...
- 1950: Guy SchofieldGuy SchofieldEdward Guy Schofield was a British newspaper editor.Born in Leeds, Schofield attended Leeds Modern School, then began his career in 1918 on the Leeds Mercury, before moving to the Daily Dispatch and the Evening Chronicle...
- 1955: Arthur WarehamArthur WarehamArthur Wareham was a British newspaper editor.Wareham attended Queen's College, Taunton, then entered journalism with the Western Morning News. In 1935 he moved to the Daily Mail, rising to become editor in 1955...
- 1959: William HardcastleWilliam Hardcastle (broadcaster)William Hardcastle was a British journalist, editor of the Daily Mail and first presenter of the lunchtime news programme The World at One on BBC Radio....
- 1963: Mike RandallMike RandallMike Randall was a British newspaper editor.Randall worked as a shipping clerk in Brazil in his youth. He moved to the UK at the start of World War II and took a job as a journalist at the Daily Sketch. In 1941, he moved to the Sunday Graphic, rising to become its editor in 1953...
- 1966: Arthur BrittendenArthur BrittendenCharles Arthur Brittenden is a former newspaper editor in the United Kingdom.Brittenden worked as a journalist at the Yorkshire Evening Post, then rose to become Assistant Editor of the Daily Express by the early 1960s. In 1966, he moved to become Editor of the Daily Mail...
- 1971: David EnglishDavid English (journalist)Sir David English was a British journalist and newspaper editor, best known for his twenty-year editorship of the Daily Mail.-Early life:...
- 1992: Paul DacrePaul DacrePaul Michael Dacre is a British journalist and current editor of the British newspaper the Daily Mail. He is also editor in chief of the Mail group titles, which also includes The Mail on Sunday. He is also a director of the Daily Mail and General Trust plc and was a member of the Press Complaints...
Source: D. Butler and A. Sloman, British Political Facts, 1900–1975, p. 378.
See also
- Daily ChronicleDaily ChronicleThe Daily Chronicle was a British newspaper that was published from 1872 to 1930 when it merged with the Daily News to become the News Chronicle.-History:...
, a newspaper which merged with the Daily News to become the News-Chronicle and was finally absorbed by the Daily Mail - 1910 London to Manchester air race1910 London to Manchester air raceThe 1910 London to Manchester air race took place between two aviators, who each attempted to win a heavier-than-air powered flight challenge between London and Manchester, first proposed by the Daily Mail newspaper in 1906. The £10,000 prize was won in April 1910 by Frenchman Louis Paulhan.The...