DMGT, Rothermere and Northcliffe: landmarks
Landmarks
This chronology is indicative only (information from
It covers years 1881-2006
·beginnings (1881)
·Observer, Times and Sunday Times (1905)
·after Northcliffe (1922)
·floating the Daily Mirror (1947)
·expansion into US (1979)
·consolidation of Associated Newspapers (1988)
·GWR and Australian radio (2000)
A broader communications and media timeline is available elsewhere on this site.
Beginnings
1881 Tit-Bits launched by George Newnes
1886 Alfred Harmsworth employed by Edward Iliffe to edit Bicycling News
1888 Star launched (merged with Evening News in 1960)
1890 Daily Graphic launched as first London illustrated daily (merged with Daily Sketch in 1926)
1894 Alfred Harmsworth (later Lord Northcliffe) buys ailing London Evening News
1892 Morning founded (became London Morning in 1898, then Morning Herald and merged with Daily Express in 1900)
1895 Harmsworth buys Portsmouth Evening Mail (later Southern Daily Mail)
1895 buys Glasgow Mail & Record
1896 launches Daily Mail
1899 Sunday Daily Mail launched then relaunched as weekly Illustrated Mail
1902 Times Literary Supplement launched
1903 buys Weekly Dispatch (later Sunday Dispatch)
1903 Daily Mirror launched by Harmsworth and brother Harold (1868-1940, 1st Lord Rothermere)
1904 Daily Mirror takes off after Harmsworths use new technology - first UK daily illustrated exclusively with photographs
1904 Harmsworths buy Manchester Courier for £114,500
1904 launches Overseas Mail (becomes Continental Daily Mail in 1905)
Observer, Times and Sunday Times
1905 Harmsworths buy The Observer (later sold to Astors)
1905 form Associated Newspapers
1908 Harmsworths buy Sunday Times
1908 Harmsworths buy the Times for £320,000
1908 Illustrated Weekly Budget launched as 'only 1d newspaper in the world printed in colour' but folds after seven issues
1909 Daily Sketch launched (merged with Daily Mail in 1971)
1912 sells The Observer
1915 'Teddy Tail' - first British comic strip - in the Daily Mail
1915 Sunday Pictorial launched by Rothermere (becomes Sunday Mirror in 1963)
1916 Manchester Courier closed
1918 Rothermere appointed Secretary of State
1922 death of Lord Northcliffe
After Northcliffe
1922 Daily Mail Trust Ltd formed
1922 Times sold to John Jacob Astor
1922 exhange of interests with Beaverbrook
1923 Beaverbrook on-sells Sir Edward Hulton's Daily Sketch, Sunday Herald and other titles to Rothermere for £6 million
1924 Rothermere sells Glasgow Mail & Record
1928 forms Northcliffe Newspapers as regional chain, buying titles in Wales, Midlands and North-East of England
1930 News Chronicle formed by merger of Daily News and Daily Chronicle. Merged with Daily Mail in 1960
1933 relationship with Beaverbrook dissolved
1934 Daily Mail publishes the first newspaper photograph transmitted by beam radio (from Melbourne to London)
1935 Northcliffe Newspapers takes 40% stake in Bristol United Press
1939 Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfurst v Rothermere
1939 Yorkshire Post merges with Rothermere's Leeds Mercury
1940 death of Lord Rothermere
Floating the Daily Mirror
1947 Daily Mirror floated
1949 Northcliffe Newspapers buys Lincoln evening newspaper
1949 Northcliffe Newspapers buys Leicester evening newspaper
1959 Northcliffe Newspapers buys West Country Publications (inc Western Morning News, West Briton, Plymouth Evening Herald, Tiverton Gazette and Cornish Guardian)
1960 merger of Daily Sketch and Daily Mail
1961 closure of the Sunday Dispatch
1962 buys Retford Times
1964 Daily Telegraph magazine launched
expansion into US
1979 buys American Lawyer group
1980 Evening News closes
1980 gains 50% of Evening Standard
1982 Mail on Sunday launched
1985 gains remainder of Evening Standard
1985 buys Glebesword
1987 relaunches Evening News in competition with Maxwell's London Daily News
1987 closes Evening News after London Daily News fails
Consolidation of Associated Newspapers
1988 Daily Mail & General Trust buys remaining 50.05% of Associated Newspapers
1989 sells National Opinion Polls (NOP) to MAI for £16m
1989 sells American Lawyer group
1990 buys Hobsons publishing
1990 buys 70% of Hungarian regional paper Kisalfold
1991 takes stake in Westcountry Television
1992 buys Malden Publications
1993 establishes UK News as joint venture with Pearson
1994 sells five titles, including The Field and Shooting Times, to Reed-Elsevier's IPC Magazines
1994 buys Nottingham Evening Post and sister titles
1995 buys British Pathé film archive
1995 buys Argus Business Media for £35m
1996 buys 20% stake in ITN for £20.5m from Granada and Carlton
1996 sells stake in buys Westcountry Television to Carlton
1996 buys stake in UK radio broadcaster LNR from Reuters in partnership with GWR and ITN
1998 death of third Lord Rothermere
1999 buys Environmental Data Resources, real estate data services
2000 buys Aero-Dynamics Corp
2000 buys Verlagsforum, German education and recruitment group
2000 sells VetStream
2000 buys Australian Trade Exhibitions
2000 buys Mayhill Publications (AntiqueWeek) in US for £15m
GWR and Australian radio
2000 sells UK radio interests (inc LBC and News Direct) to GWR, gaining 29.9% stake
2001 buys Ireland on Sunday from Scottish Radio Holdings for £7.4m
2001 buys energy specialist Gulf Publishing Company for US$10m
2001 sells Johansens to Advance
2002 buys Brisbane radio 4BH from APN
2002 buys environmental business assets of Fidelity National Information Solutions
2002 buys GWR's Australian broadcast interests for £35m
2002 increases stake in GWR to 29.9%
2002 sells stake in LNR
2003 sells radio station 4BH in Brisbane to Southern Cross
2003 pays £10m for Adelaide FM radio license (launched as Nova Adelaide in 2004)
2004 pays £33m for new FM licence in Brisbane and £43m for Sydney licence
2004 pays £20m for second FM licence in Melbourne
2004 sells 57 Australian regional radio stations to Regional Media (later Macquarie Media) for $193.5m
2004 buys Bargain Pages Media - Birmingham-based free classified ad publisher for £8.5m
2004 pays £13.8m for Find a Property, UK's largest independent property website
2006 scraps planned £1.5bn sale of regional newspapers division, Northcliffe Newspapers, after three bidders fail to table high enough offer
2006 sells Aberdeen Journals arm (inc The Aberdeen Press & Journal and Aberdeen Evening Express) to DC Thomson for £132m
2006 buys energy sector publisher Genscape for £110m
2006 closes Taunton Times and sells Wellington Weekly News to Tindle Newspapers
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