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This article is about the British national daily newspaper. For the Charleston (WV) Daily Mail, see Charleston Daily Mail.
Daily Mail
A Daily Mail front page from August 2007
A Daily Mail front page from August 2007
A Daily Mail front page.
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatTabloid
Owner(s)Daily Mail and General Trust
PublisherAssociated Newspapers Ltd
EditorPaul Dacre
Founded1896
Political alignmentMiddle England [1]
LanguageEnglish
Websitehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/

The Daily Mail is a British newspaper currently published in a tabloid format. 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. An Irish edition of the paper was launched in 2006. The Daily Mail was Britain's first daily newspaper aimed at what is now considered the middle-market and the first to sell a million copies a day.[2]

Overview

The Mail was originally a broadsheet, but switched to a compact format[3] 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 more than two million which is the third-largest circulation of any English language daily newspaper and one of the highest in the world.[4]

Circulation figures according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, in October 2007 show gross sales of 2,400,143 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.[5] 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 so that the newspaper had no firm political allegiance or policy.[6]

History

Early history

The Daily Mail, devised by Alfred Harmsworth (later Lord Northcliffe) and his brother Harold (later Lord Rothermere), 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. By 1902, at the end of the Boer War, the circulation was over a million, making it the largest in the world.[7][8]

With Harold running the business side of the operation, and Alfred as Editor, the Mail from the start adopted a 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.[9] 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 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.)

In 1908, the Daily Mail began the Ideal Home Exhibition, which it still runs today.

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. [10] 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[citation needed]. The paper then campaigned against Asquith, who resigned on 5 December 1916.[11] His successor, David Lloyd George, asked Northcliffe to be in his cabinet, hoping it would prevent him from criticising the government. Northcliffe declined.[12]

Inter-war period

In 1922, when Lord Northcliffe died, Lord Rothermere took full control of the paper.

In 1924 the Daily Mail published the forged Zinoviev Letter which indicated that British Communists were planning violent revolution. Many believed 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 UEP candidate, Sir Ernest Petter, supported by Rothermere, and this broke the political power of the press barons.[13]

In early 1934, Rothermere and the Mail were editorially sympathetic to Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists[14]. Rothermere wrote an article, "Hurrah for the Blackshirts", in January 1934, praising Mosley for his "sound, commonsense, Conservative doctrine"[15]. However, pressure from advertisers in the Daily Mail grew significant when Rothermere proposed to set up a cigarette company and so Rothermere backed off and ceased to support them.[16]

During the great abdication crisis of 1936, the Daily Mail supported the King, but was only joined by the Daily Express, Evening Standard and Evening News.[17]

Rothermere was a friend and supporter of both Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, which influenced the Mail's political stance towards them up to 1939.[18][19] Rothermere visited and corresponded with Hitler. On 1 October 1938, Rothermere sent Hitler a telegram in support of Germany's invasion of the Sudetenland, and expressing the hope that 'Adolf the Great' would become a popular figure in Britain. However, this was tempered by an awareness of the military threat from the resurgent Germany, of which he warned J.C. Davidson. Rothermere had an executive plane built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company which, with a speed of 307 mph, was faster than any fighter. In 1935, this plane was presented to the RAF on behalf of the Daily Mail where it became the Bristol Blenheim bomber.[20]

In 1937, the Mail's chief war correspondent, George Ward Price, to whom Mussolini once wrote in support of him and the newspaper, published a book, I Know These Dictators, in defence of Hitler and Mussolini. Evelyn Waugh was sent as a reporter for the Mail to cover the anticipated Italian invasion of Ethiopia.

Rothermere and the Mail supported Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement, particularly during the events leading up to the Munich Agreement. After the Nazi invasion of Prague in 1939, the Mail changed its stance.

Recent history

On 5 May, 1946, the Daily Mail celebrated its Golden Jubilee. Winston Churchill was the chief guest at the banquet and toasted it with a speech,[21]

I remember lunching at Londonderry House on the day when the Daily Mail first came out, and Alfred Harmsworth sat as the guest of honour at a very small party - a very remarkable man, a man of great influence and independence. In a free country where enterprise can make its way, he was able to create this enormous, lasting, persuasive and attractive newspaper which had its influence in our daily lives and with which we have walked along the road for 50 years.

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.[21]

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.

Foreign editions

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 and is steadily increasing on each survey.[22] Since 24 September 2006 Ireland on Sunday, 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. The newspaper entered India on 16 November 2007 with the launch of Mail Today,[23] 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.[24]

Libel lawsuits

On 27 April 2007, film star Hugh Grant accepted damages over claims made about his relationships with his former girlfriends in three separate tabloid articles published in the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday on 18, 21 and 24 February. His lawyer stated that all of the articles' "allegations and factual assertions are false."[25] Grant said, in a written statement, that he took the action because: "I was tired of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday papers publishing almost entirely fictional articles about my private life for their own financial gain. I'm also hoping that this statement in court might remind people that the so-called 'close friends' or 'close sources' on which these stories claim to be based almost never exist."[26]

World soccer's governing body, FIFA, also filed a lawsuit against the Daily Mail due to comments made by sportswriter Andrew Jennings against the organisation and its president Sepp Blatter.[27]

The Daily Mail falsely reported that former child star Mark Lester assaulted his ex-wife and had allowed his son to share a bedroom with Michael Jackson. In 2008 substantial damages along with legal costs were awarded to Mark Lester after he launched a libel case against the paper. [28]

Editorial stance

Current columnists

The Daily Mail considers itself to be the voice of Middle England[29] speaking up for "small-c" conservative[30] values against what it sees as a liberal establishment. The Mail takes an anti-EU, anti-mass-immigration, anti-abortion view, based upon "traditional values", and is pro-capitalism and pro-monarchy, as well as, in some cases, advocating stricter punishments for crime. It also often calls for lower levels of taxation. The paper is generally critical of the BBC, which it argues is biased to the left.[31]

In the late 1960s the paper went through a phase of being liberal on social issues like corporal punishment, but reverted to its traditional conservative line.

It has Richard Littlejohn, who returned in 2005 from The Sun, alongside Peter Hitchens, who joined its sister title the Mail on Sunday in 2001, when his former newspaper, the Daily Express, was purchased by Richard Desmond, the owner of a number of pornographic titles. The editorial stance was critical of Tony Blair, when he was still Prime Minister, and endorsed the Conservative Party in the 2005 general election[32] In Blair's earlier years as Labour leader and then Prime Minister the paper wrote positively about him and his reforms of the party. Opponents of Littlejohn have accused him of being preoccupied with homosexuality, and lying about asylum seekers being 'hosed down in benefits'[33].

The Mail championed the case of Stephen Lawrence, a black teenager who was murdered in a racially motivated attack in Eltham, London in April 1993. In 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". In a 2002 interview, editor Paul Dacre described the Lawrence story as a "pivotal moment" and stated that "the old Daily Mail, I'd be the first to admit, was slightly racist... but we are not now and Stephen Lawrence was the turning point on that".[34]

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.[35]

Immigration

The Mail argues in favour of managed migration[36][37] while criticising what it calls Labour's "open door" immigration policy. Some opponents (including ex-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone) call the Mail's treatment of issues, such as asylum seekers, racism.[38]

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) criticised the Mail for what the ACPO says is misquoting information about immigration in order to support the newspaper's anti-mass-immigration position and warned that media campaigns against immigrants could lead to a risk of "significant public disorder". [39]

Supplements and features

Daily Mail

  • City & Finance - City & Finance is the business part of the Daily Mail, and the Financial Mail is the business paper free with the Mail on Sunday. City & Finance features City News and the results from the London Stock Exchange, and also has its own website called This is Money.[40]
  • Travelmail - Contains travel articles, advertisements etc.
  • Femail - Femail is an extensive part of the Daily Mail's newspaper and website, being one of four main features on Mail Online others being News, TV & Showbiz and Sport. It is designed for women.
  • Weekend - The Daily Mail Weekend is a TV guide published by the Daily Mail, included free with the Mail every Saturday. Weekend magazine, launched in October 1993, is issued free with the Saturday Daily Mail. The guide does not use a magazine-type layout but chooses a newspaper style similar to the Daily Mail itself. In April 2007, the "Weekend" had a major revamp. A feature changed during the revamp was a dedicated Freeview channel page.

Mail on Sunday

  • Financial Mail on Sunday - now part of the main paper, this section includes the Financial Mail Enterprise, focusing on small business.
  • You - You magazine is a women's magazine featured in the Mail on Sunday. It is a mix of in-depth features plus fashion, beauty advice, practical insights on health and relationships, food recipes and interiors. The Mail markets it, with Live magazine, as the only paper to have a magazine for him (Live) and for her (You). The Mail on Sunday is read by over six million a week[41].
  • Live - this is the magazine is aimed at men. The main features are columns by well-known people[citation needed].
  • Mail on Sunday 2 This pullout includes review, featuring articles on the arts, books and culture and it consists of reviews of all media and entertainment forms and interviews with sector personalities, property, travel and health.
  • Sportsmail - on the back pages of the Mail. It features different sports including an emphasis on alternative sports such as darts and snooker.[citation needed]
  • Football Mail on Sunday - this reviews Premier League, Championship and Football League games from Saturday as well certain international games.

Regular cartoon strips

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.[42] The Gambols are another feature in the Mail on Sunday.

The long-running Teddy Tail cartoon strip, was first published on 5 April 1915 was the first cartoon strip in a British newspaper.[citation needed] 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. [43][44]

Online media

Main article: Mail Online

The Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday publish most of their news online in a service called the Mail Online. Most of the site can be viewed for free and without registration, though some services require users to register.

Contributors

Notable regular contributors (past and present)

Journalists

Cartoonists

Photographers/Picture editors

Past writers

Editors

1899: Thomas Marlowe
1926: W. G. Fish
1929: Oscar Pulvermacher
1930: William McWhirter
1931: W. L. Warden
1935: Arthur Cranfield
1939: Bob Prew
1944: Stanley Horniblow
1947: Frank Owen
1950: Guy Schofield
1955: Arthur Wareham
1959: William Hardcastle
1963: Mike Randall
1966: Arthur Brittenden
1971: David English
1992: Paul Dacre

Source: D. Butler and A. Sloman, British Political Facts, 1900-1975 p.378

See also

  • Daily Chronicle, a newspaper which merged with the Daily News to become the News-Chronicle and was finally absorbed by the Daily Mail

References

  1. ^ >[1] The Guardian, 12 July 2001, Mail voice of middle England Wooed by left and right alike, the Daily Mail's editor and champion of middle England, Paul Dacre, leads out MediaGuardian 100's press pack
  2. ^ "Milestones in 20th Century Newspaper history in Britain". Eurocosm UK. Retrieved 2008-04-12.
  3. ^ Associated Newspapers Ltd - Daily Mail
  4. ^ "World's 100 Largest Newspapers". World Association of Newspapers. 2005. Retrieved 2008-04-12.
  5. ^ "MORI survey of newspaper readers". Retrieved 2007-12-21.
  6. ^ Dan Sabbagh, Paul Dacre can set Daily Mail agenda, says Viscount Rothermere, The Times {{citation}}: Text "May 21, 2008" ignored (help); Text "May 21, 2008" ignored (help)
  7. ^ Dennis Griffiths, Fleet Street, The British Library, pp. 132–3, ISBN 0712306978
  8. ^ Paul Manning, News and News Sources, p. 83, ISBN 9780761957966
  9. ^ Gardiner, The Times, The Atlantic Monthly, January 1917 page 113
  10. ^ New York Times Current History 1917, New York Times Company, 1917 page 211
  11. ^ Jocelyn Hunt, Britain, 1846-1919, p. 368
  12. ^ Tom Clarke (1950), Northcliffe in history, p. page 112 {{citation}}: |page= has extra text (help)
  13. ^ Dennis Griffiths (2006), "13. Prerogative of the harlot", Fleet Street, pp. 247–252, ISBN 0712306978
  14. ^ "Daily Mail". British Newspapers Online.
  15. ^ "Hurrah for the Blackshirts"
  16. ^ Dennis Griffiths (2006), Fleet Street, p. 268, ISBN 0712306978
  17. ^ Dennis Griffiths (2006), Fleet Street, p. 257, ISBN 0712306978
  18. ^ Griffiths, Richard (1980). Fellow Travellers of the Right: British Enthusiasts for Nazi Germany, 1933-9. London: Constable. ISBN 0-09-463460-2.
  19. ^ Taylor, S. J. (1996). The Great Outsiders: Northcliffe, Rothermere and the Daily Mail. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-81653-5.
  20. ^ Dennis Griffiths (2006), Fleet Street, p. 270, ISBN 0712306978
  21. ^ a b Dennis Griffiths, Fleet Street, The British Library, p. 311, ISBN 0712306978
  22. ^ Audit Bureau of Circulations
  23. ^ Mail Today
  24. ^ Associated Newspapers launches Mail Today in India
  25. ^ "Hugh Grant accepts libel damages". BBC. 2007-04-27. Retrieved 2007-02-24.
  26. ^ Tryhorn, Chris (2007-04-27). "Associated pays Grant damages". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 2007-02-17. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  27. ^ FIFA files lawsuit against Daily Mail
  28. ^ http://www.inthenews.co.uk/entertainment/film/oliver-actor-accepts-libel-damages-from-daily-mail-$1253613.htm
  29. ^ [2] The Guardian, 12 July 2001, Mail voice of middle England Wooed by left and right alike, the Daily Mail's editor and champion of middle England, Paul Dacre, leads out MediaGuardian 100's press pack
  30. ^ [3] The New Statesman, 25 October 2007, Middle England. They’re nicer than you think
  31. ^ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6764779.stm[ BBC News, 18 June 2007, Does the BBC have a bias problem? The Daily Mail headline said "BBC comes under fire for institutional left-wing bias".
  32. ^ However you vote, give Mr Blair a bloody nose, Daily Mail, 5th May 2005
  33. ^ Johann Hari. "On Fantasy Island". The New Statesman.
  34. ^ Bill Hagerty. "Paul Dacre: the zeal thing". British Journalism Review.
  35. ^ "Mail comment: Is Miliband talking us into another war?". Daily Mail. 2008-08-28. Retrieved 2008-08-29.
  36. ^ [4] Daily Mail "Wide Open Britain: The Shaming Truth", 17 May 2006 " Managed migration? Inthissagaofmind-blowingincompetence the words are positively surreal."
  37. ^ [5] Daily Mail 01 July 2005 "This paper has long been in favour of managed economic migration"
  38. ^ "Ken Livingstone's statement in full". BBC Online. 2005-02-22. Retrieved 2008-03-27.
  39. ^ Nick Davies, "None deadlier than the Mail" [6]
  40. ^ This is Money
  41. ^ Advertising for the Daily Mail
  42. ^ Maria Esposito. "Fred Basset is back". C21 Media. Retrieved 2007-03-27.
  43. ^ "Teddy Tail of the Daily Mail".
  44. ^ "Concise History of the British Newspaper in the Twentieth Century".
  45. ^ Source: Williams' memoir, The World of Action (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1938), which describes his career and journalistic adventures.


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