Express Newspapers
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
publishing
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
group. The holding company name is "Northern and Shell Network Ltd". Launched and founded in December 1974 and currently owned by Richard Desmond
Richard Desmond
Richard Clive Desmond is an English publisher and businessman. He is the owner of Express Newspapers and founder in 1974 of Northern & Shell, which publishes various celebrity magazines, such as OK! and New!, and British national newspapers Daily Star and Daily Express...
, it publishes 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...
, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday, and the magazines OK!
OK!
OK! is a British weekly magazine specializing in celebrity news. Originally launched as a monthly, its first issue was published in April 1993. In September 2004, OK! publishers Northern and Shell launched in Australia as a monthly title – the magazine went weekly in October 2006...
, New!, and Star
Star (magazine)
Star is an American celebrity tabloid magazine.-History:Star was founded by Rupert Murdoch in 1974 as competition to the tabloid National Enquirer with its headquarters in New York City. In the late 1980s it moved its offices to Tarrytown, NY and in 1990 Murdoch sold the magazine to The Enquirers...
. Northern & Shell also owns three entertainment television channels: Channel 5, 5* and 5USA. The company also owns Portland TV, which owns the adult TV channels; Television X
Television X
Television X is the name of a series of adult television channels in the UK, produced by Portland TV, a subsidiary of Northern & Shell owned by Richard Desmond, the proprietor of the Daily Express...
, Red Hot TV, and others.
History
Desmond founded Northern and Shell in 1974 and launched a magazine called International Musician and Recording WorldInternational Musician and Recording World
International Musician and Recording World was a magazine in production from 1974 to 1991. It was jointly created by Ray Hammond and Richard Desmond and published by Northern & Shell. As it expanded, separate editions were created for the United States, Europe, Australia, and Japan...
. In 1983, Northern and Shell obtained the license to publish Penthouse
Penthouse (magazine)
Penthouse, a men's magazine founded by Bob Guccione, combines urban lifestyle articles and softcore pornographic pictorials that, in the 1990s, evolved into hardcore. Penthouse is owned by FriendFinder Network. formerly known as General Media, Inc. whose parent company was Penthouse International...
in the United Kingdom which led to its publishing a range of adult titles, Asian Babes
Asian Babes
Asian Babes is a British pornographic magazine which features depictions of women of South Asian, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai origin.The magazine was owned by Richard Desmond's Northern and Shell publishing company until its sale in 2004 as part of a package of 45 titles to Remnant Media for a...
among them. These titles were later sold in 2004. It was the first company to move to the revamped Docklands and the Princess Royal
Anne, Princess Royal
Princess Anne, Princess Royal , is the only daughter of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
opened the offices. When the company moved to the Northern & Shell Tower Prince Philip
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
did the honours.
In November 2000 Northern & Shell acquired Express Newspapers from United News & Media
United Business Media
UBM plc is a magazine publisher, news distributor and events organiser providing business information services principally to the technology, healthcare, media, automotive and financial services industries...
for £125m, enlarging the group to include the Daily and Sunday Express titles, the Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday (which Desmond started), and the Irish Star (owned jointly with the Irish Independent group). The Daily and Sunday Express each sell around 700,000 copies per issue.
Northern & Shell also publishes a wide range of magazines including the celebrity weekly, OK!
OK!
OK! is a British weekly magazine specializing in celebrity news. Originally launched as a monthly, its first issue was published in April 1993. In September 2004, OK! publishers Northern and Shell launched in Australia as a monthly title – the magazine went weekly in October 2006...
, started as a monthly in 1993, which is the largest weekly magazine in the world with a readership in excess of 31 million .
On 23 July 2010, Northern & Shell bought Channel 5, 5* and 5USA for €125 million (£103.5 million) from the RTL Group
RTL Group
RTL Group is Europe's largest TV, radio and production company, and is majority-owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. It has 45 television and 32 radio stations in 11 countries...
.