Editing Daily Mirror (section)

==History==
===1903–1995===
[[File:Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe - Project Gutenberg eText 15305.jpg|left|thumb|upright|[[Alfred Harmsworth]] (later Lord Northcliffe), founder of the ''Daily Mirror'']]
''The Daily Mirror'' was launched on 2 November 1903 by [[Alfred Harmsworth]] (later Lord Northcliffe) as a newspaper for women, run by women.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url= https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Mirror-British-newspaper |title=The Mirror {{!}} British newspaper |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=26 December 2017}}</ref> About the name, he said: "I intend it to be really a mirror of feminine life as well on its grave as on its lighter sides&nbsp;... to be entertaining without being frivolous, and serious without being dull."<ref>''Daily Mirror'' No. 1 (2 November 1903) page 3</ref> It cost one [[Penny (British pre-decimal coin)|penny]] (equivalent to {{Inflation|UK|10 / 24|1903|r=0|fmt=c}}p in {{Inflation-year|UK}}).

It was not an immediate success and in 1904 Harmsworth decided to turn it into a pictorial newspaper with a broader focus. Harmsworth appointed [[Hamilton Fyfe]] as editor and all of the paper's female journalists were fired. The masthead was changed to ''The Daily Illustrated Mirror'', which ran from 26 January to 27 April 1904 (issues 72 to 150), when it reverted to ''The Daily Mirror''.<ref name="Albion">[[Albion (history journal)|Albion]] (1973) Vol 5, 2-page 150</ref> The first issue of the relaunched paper did not have advertisements on the front page as previously, but instead news text and engraved pictures (of a traitor and an actress), with the promise of photographs inside.<ref>''Daily Mirror'' issue 72, 26 January 1904</ref> Two days later, the price was dropped to one [[Halfpenny (British pre-decimal coin)|halfpenny]] and to the masthead was added: "A paper for men and women".<ref>''Daily Illustrated Mirror'' issue 74, 28 January 1904</ref> This combination was more successful: by issue 92, the guaranteed circulation was 120,000 copies<ref>''Daily Illustrated Mirror'' issue 92, 18 February 1904</ref> and by issue 269, it had grown to 200,000:<ref>''Daily Mirror'' issue 269, 13 September 1904</ref> by then the name had reverted and the front page was mainly photographs. Circulation grew to 466,000 making it the second-largest morning newspaper.<ref>''Daily Mirror'' issue 1335, 8 February 1908</ref>

Alfred Harmsworth sold the newspaper to his brother [[Harold Harmsworth]] (from 1914 Lord Rothermere) in 1913. In 1917, the price was increased to one penny.<ref name="DM4163">''Daily Mirror'' issue 4163, 26 February 1917</ref> Circulation continued to grow: in 1919, some issues sold more than a million copies a day, making it the largest daily picture paper.<ref name="DM4856">''Daily Mirror'' issue 4856, 19 May 1919</ref> In 1924 the newspaper sponsored the [[1924 Women's Olympiad]] held at [[Stamford Bridge (stadium)|Stamford Bridge]] in London.

[[File:Lord Rothermere.jpg|right|thumb|upright|[[Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere]]]]
Lord Rothermere was a friend of [[Benito Mussolini]] and [[Adolf Hitler]], and directed the ''Mirror''{{'}}s editorial stance towards them in the early 1930s.<ref name="Griffiths1980">{{Cite book|last=Griffiths|first=Richard|title=Fellow Travellers of the Right: British Enthusiasts for Nazi Germany, 1933-9|year=1980|publisher=Constable|location=London|isbn=0-09-463460-2}}</ref><ref>Roy Greenslade, [https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2011/dec/06/dailymail-oswald-mosley Don't damn the Daily Mail for its fascist flirtation 80 years ago], [[theguardian.com]] (7 December 2011)</ref> On Monday, 22 January 1934 the ''Daily Mirror'' ran the headline "Give the Blackshirts a helping hand" urging readers to join Sir [[Oswald Mosley]]'s [[British Union of Fascists]], and giving the address to which to send membership applications.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/revealed-the-fascist-past-of-the-daily-mirror-77871.html|title=Revealed: the fascist past of the Daily Mirror|date=11 November 2003|website=The Independent}}</ref> By the mid-1930s, the ''Mirror'' was struggling – it and the ''Mail'' were the main casualties of the early 1930s circulation war that saw the ''[[Daily Herald (United Kingdom)|Daily Herald]]'' and the ''[[Daily Express]]'' establish circulations of more than two million, and Rothermere decided to sell his shares in it.

In 1935 Rothermere sold the paper to [[Harry Guy Bartholomew]] and [[Hugh Cudlipp]].<ref>McKibbin, Ross. ''Classes and Cultures: England 1918-1951''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 406.</ref> With [[Cecil Harmsworth King|Cecil King]] (Rothermere's nephew) in charge of the paper's finances and Guy Bartholomew as editor, during the late 1930s the ''Mirror'' was transformed from a conservative, middle class newspaper into a [[left-wing]] paper for the working class.<ref>Adrian Bingham, and Martin Conboy, "The Daily Mirror and the Creation of a Commercial Popular Language", ''Journalism Studies'' (2009) 19#5 pp 639-654.</ref> Partly on the advice of the American advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, the ''Mirror'' became the first British paper to adopt the appearance of the New York tabloids. The headlines became bigger, the stories shorter and the illustrations more abundant.<ref>McKibbin, Ross. ''Classes and Cultures: England 1918-1951''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 506.</ref> By 1939, the publication was selling 1.4&nbsp;million copies a day. In 1937, [[Hugh McClelland (cartoonist)|Hugh McClelland]] introduced his wild Western comic strip ''[[Beelzebub Jones]]'' in the ''Daily Mirror''. After taking over as cartoon chief at the ''Mirror'' in 1945,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hS1lAAAAMAAJ&q=%22beelzebub+jones%22|title=The World encyclopedia of comics|last=Horn|author-link1=Maurice Horn |first=Maurice |date=1983 |publisher=Chelsea House |isbn=9780877543237}}</ref> he dropped ''Beelzebub Jones'' and moved on to a variety of new strips.

During the Second World War the ''Mirror'' positioned itself as the paper of the ordinary soldier and civilian, and was critical of the political leadership and the established parties. At one stage, the paper was threatened with closure following the publication of a [[Philip Zec]] [[political cartoon|cartoon]] (captioned by [[William Connor]]), which was misinterpreted by [[Winston Churchill]] and [[Herbert Morrison]].<ref name="cassandra">{{cite book |title=Cassandra: Reflections in a Mirror |url=https://archive.org/details/cassandrareflect0000conn |first=Robert |last=Connor |publisher=Cassell |year =1969 |location =London |isbn= 978-0-304-93341-9}}</ref> In the [[1945 UK general election]], the paper strongly supported the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] in its eventual landslide victory. In doing so, the paper supported [[Herbert Morrison]], who co-ordinated Labour's campaign, and recruited his former antagonist Philip Zec to reproduce, on the front page, a popular [[VE Day]] cartoon on the morning of the election, suggesting that Labour were the only party who could maintain peace in post-war Britain.<ref name="tabloidnation" /> By the late 1940s, it was selling 4.5&nbsp;million copies a day, outstripping the ''Express''; for some 30 years afterwards, it dominated the British daily newspaper market, selling more than 5 million copies a day at its peak in the mid-1960s.

The ''Mirror'' was an influential model for German tabloid ''[[Bild]]'', which was founded in 1952 and became Europe's best-selling newspaper.<ref>[http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,412021,00.html Sex, Smut and Shock: Bild Zeitung Rules Germany] [[Spiegel Online]] 25 April 2006</ref>

[[File:Daily Mirror 20130413 052.jpg|thumb|[[Sainsbury's]] Building in [[Holborn, London|Holborn]], London (former site of Daily Mirror Building)]]

In 1955, the ''Mirror'' and its stablemate the ''Sunday Pictorial'' (later to become the ''Sunday Mirror'') began printing a northern edition in [[Manchester]]. In 1957 it introduced the [[Andy Capp]] cartoon, created by [[Reg Smythe]] from Hartlepool, in the northern editions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tabloid journalism |url= https://www.britannica.com/topic/tabloid-journalism |access-date=19 September 2020 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref>

The ''Mirror''{{'s}} mass working-class readership had made it the United Kingdom's best-selling daily [[Tabloid (newspaper format)|tabloid]] newspaper. In 1960, it acquired the ''[[Daily Herald (United Kingdom)|Daily Herald]]'' (the popular daily of the labour movement) when it bought [[Odhams]], in one of a series of takeovers which created the [[International Publishing Corporation]] (IPC). The ''Mirror'' management did not want the ''Herald'' competing with the ''Mirror'' for readers, and in 1964, relaunched it as a mid-market paper, now named ''[[The Sun (United Kingdom)|The Sun]]''. When it failed to win readers, ''The Sun'' was sold to [[Rupert Murdoch]] – who immediately relaunched it as a more [[populist]] and sensationalist tabloid and a direct competitor to the ''Mirror''.

<!-- I didn't put this in the "Famous Features", as Mirrorscope was short-lived, and not famous! -->
In an attempt to cater to a different kind of reader, the ''Mirror'' launched the "Mirrorscope" pull-out section on 30 January 1968. The ''[[Press Gazette]]'' commented: "The ''Daily Mirror'' launched its revolutionary four-page supplement "Mirrorscope". The ambitious brief for the supplement, which ran on Wednesdays and Fridays, was to deal with international affairs, politics, industry, science, the arts and business".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=27950 |work=[[Press Gazette]] |title=Back Issues 23.01.03 |date=23 March 2009 |access-date=19 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090802215955/http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=27950 |archive-date=2 August 2009}}</ref> The ''[[British Journalism Review]]'' said in 2002 that "Mirrorscope" was "a game attempt to provide serious analysis in the rough and tumble of the tabloids".<ref>{{cite journal |title=Attacking the devil |journal=[[British Journalism Review]] |volume=13 |issue=4 |year=2002 |pages=6–14 |doi=10.1177/095647480201300402 |last1=Evans |first1=Harold |doi-access=free }}</ref> It failed to attract significant numbers of new readers, and the pull-out section was abandoned, its final issue appearing on 27 August 1974.{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}}

In 1978, ''The Sun'' overtook the ''Mirror'' in circulation, and in 1984 the ''Mirror'' was sold to [[Robert Maxwell]]. The first ''Mirror'' using colour appeared on the 1st August 1988 edition.<ref>{{Cite web |title=First colour edition |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000560/19880801/001/0001 |url-access=registration |access-date=2023-09-04 |website=[[British Newspaper Archive]]}}</ref> Following Maxwell's death in 1991, [[David Montgomery (newspaper executive)|David Montgomery]] became Mirror Group's CEO, and a period of cost-cutting and production changes ensued. The ''Mirror'' went through a protracted period of crisis before merging with the regional newspaper group Trinity to form [[Trinity Mirror]] in 1999. Printing of the ''Daily'' and ''Sunday Mirror'' moved to Trinity Mirror's facilities in Watford and Oldham.{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}}

===1995–2004===
[[File:Daily Mirror front page 24 June 1996.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Front page of the ''Mirror'' 24 June 1996, with headline "ACHTUNG! SURRENDER For you Fritz, ze Euro 96 Championship is over", and accompanying contribution from the editor, "Mirror declares football war on Germany"]]
Under the editorship of [[Piers Morgan]] (from October 1995 to May 2004) the paper saw a number of controversies.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url= https://www.britannica.com/biography/Piers-Morgan#ref1092939 |title=Piers Morgan {{!}} British journalist and television personality|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=26 December 2017}}</ref> Morgan was widely criticised and forced to apologise for the headline "ACHTUNG! SURRENDER For you Fritz, ze Euro 96 Championship is over" a day before [[England national football team|England]] met [[Germany national football team|Germany]] in a semi-final of the [[Euro 96]] football championships.<ref name="IHT">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/26/news/26iht-england.t_0.html |title=Oh, Sorry: Tabloids Lose the Soccer War |last=Thomsen |first=Ian |date=26 June 1996 |work=The New York Times |access-date=3 June 2008}}</ref>

In 2000, Morgan was the subject of an investigation after Suzy Jagger wrote a story in ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' revealing that he had bought £20,000 worth of shares in the computer company [[Viglen]] soon before the ''Mirror''{{'}}s 'City Slickers' column tipped Viglen as a good buy.<ref name="lie">{{Cite news |title=Mirror editor saw his shares soar after paper tipped company |author=Jagger, Suzy |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/2000/02/02/nmir02.html |date=2 February 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021122223139/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=%2Farchive%2F2000%2F02%2F02%2Fnmir02.html |archive-date=22 November 2002 |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London}}</ref> Morgan was found by the [[Press Complaints Commission]] to have breached the Code of Conduct on financial journalism, but kept his job. The 'City Slickers' columnists, [[Anil Bhoyrul]] and [[James Hipwell]], were both found to have committed further breaches of the Code, and were sacked before the inquiry. In 2004, further enquiry by the [[Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom)|Department of Trade and Industry]] cleared Morgan from any charges.<ref name="cleared">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3792225.stm |title=Morgan cleared after shares probe |work=BBC News |date=10 June 2004}}</ref> On 7 December 2005 Bhoyrul and Hipwell were convicted of conspiracy to breach the Financial Services Act. During the trial it emerged that Morgan had bought £67,000 worth of Viglen shares, emptying his bank account and investing under his wife's name too.<ref name="lie2">{{Cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/nov/23/business.pressandpublishing |title= Mirror editor 'bought £67,000 of shares before they were tipped' |work=The Guardian |location=London |first=Chris |last=Tryhorn |date=23 November 2005 |access-date=22 May 2010}}</ref>

In 2002, the ''Mirror'' attempted to move mid-market, claiming to eschew the more trivial stories of show-business and gossip. The paper changed its masthead logo from red to black (and occasionally blue), in an attempt to dissociate itself from the term "[[red tops|red top]]", a term for a sensationalist mass-market tabloid. (On 6 April 2005, the red top came back.) Under then-editor [[Piers Morgan]], the newspaper's editorial stance opposed the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]], and ran many front pages critical of the war. It also gave financial support to the [[15 February 2003 anti-war protest]], paying for a large screen and providing thousands of placards. Morgan re-hired [[John Pilger]], who had been sacked during [[Robert Maxwell]]'s ownership of the Mirror titles. Despite such changes, Morgan was unable to halt the paper's decline in circulation, a decline shared by its direct [[Tabloid (newspaper format)|tabloid]] rivals ''[[The Sun (United Kingdom)|The Sun]]'' and the ''[[Daily Star (United Kingdom)|Daily Star]]''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cozens |first=Claire |date=2003-04-11 |title=Daily Mirror sales fall below 2m |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/apr/11/pressandpublishing.mirror |access-date=2023-03-11 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Morgan was fired from the ''Mirror'' on 14 May 2004 after authorising the newspaper's publication of photographs allegedly showing [[Iraq]]i prisoners being abused by [[British Army]] soldiers from the [[Queen's Lancashire Regiment]].<ref>{{Cite news|url = http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/13/iraq.abuse.statement/index.html |title=Daily Mirror statement in full |publisher=CNN |date=13 May 2004 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20041125053916/http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/13/iraq.abuse.statement/index.html |archive-date=25 November 2004 |access-date=22 May 2010}}</ref> Within days the photographs were shown to be fakes. Under the headline "SORRY.. WE WERE HOAXED", the ''Mirror'' responded that it had fallen victim to a "calculated and malicious hoax" and apologised for the publication of the photographs.<ref>{{Cite news |url = http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/14/iraq.abuse.uk/ |title=Fake abuse photos: Editor quits |publisher=CNN London |date=15 May 2004 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20041012123314/http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/14/iraq.abuse.uk/ |archive-date=12 October 2004 }}</ref>

===2004–present===
The ''Mirror''{{'s}} front page on 4 November 2004, after the re-election of [[George W. Bush]] as U.S. president, read "How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?". It provided a list of states and their alleged average IQ, showing the Bush states all below average intelligence (except for [[Virginia]]), and all [[John Kerry]] states at or above average intelligence. The source for this table was ''[[The Economist]]'',<ref>{{cite news |last=Sutherland |first=John |title=The Axis of Stupidity |work=The Guardian |location =London |date=11 November 2004 |url= https://www.theguardian.com/education/2004/nov/11/highereducation.uselections2004}}</ref> although it was a hoax.<ref>{{cite web |website=[[Snopes]] |title=Fool Me Twice |url= http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/stateiq.asp |date=12 November 2004 |access-date=19 July 2009 }}</ref> [[Richard Wallace (journalist)|Richard Wallace]] became editor in 2004.

On 30 May 2012, Trinity Mirror announced the merger of the ''Daily Mirror'' and ''Sunday Mirror'' into a single seven-day-a-week title.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/may/30/richard-wallace-tina-weaver-mirror?newsfeed=true |title= Richard Wallace and Tina Weaver depart as Mirror titles go seven-day |access-date=30 May 2012 |work=The Guardian |location= London |date=30 May 2012 |first=Mark |last=Sweney}}</ref> Richard Wallace and Tina Weaver, the respective editors of the ''Daily Mirror'' and ''Sunday Mirror'', were simultaneously dismissed and [[Lloyd Embley]], editor of ''The People'', appointed as editor of the combined title with immediate effect.<ref>{{cite news |last= Alleyne |first=Richard |title=Daily Mirror to merge with Sunday Mirror as both editors sacked |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/9299624/Daily-Mirror-to-merge-with-Sunday-Mirror-as-both-editors-sacked.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/9299624/Daily-Mirror-to-merge-with-Sunday-Mirror-as-both-editors-sacked.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |work=The Daily Telegraph |location= London |access-date=30 May 2012 |date=30 May 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title= Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror to merge: full statement |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/9299655/Daily-Mirror-and-Sunday-Mirror-to-merge-full-statement.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/9299655/Daily-Mirror-and-Sunday-Mirror-to-merge-full-statement.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |work=The Daily Telegraph |location= London |access-date=30 May 2012 |date=30 May 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In 2018, Reach plc acquired the Northern & Shell titles, including the Daily Express, which led to a number of editor moves across the stable. Lloyd Embley was then promoted to editor-in-chief across the entire group, and [[Alison Phillips]] (previously deputy editor-in-chief for the Trinity Mirror titles) was appointed editor of the Daily Mirror.

In August 2023<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=3 August 2023 |title=Mirror U.S. launches “.com” site |url=https://www.inpublishing.co.uk/articles/mirror-us-launches-com-site-22185 |url-status=live |access-date=21 January 2025 |website=InPublishing}}</ref> MGN Ltd and Reach plc launched a division of the ''Daily Mirror'' for the [[United States]]. It consists of a news website, titled ''The Mirror'' ''US'', with offices based in [[New York City]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=About Us |url=https://www.themirror.com/about-us/ |url-status=live |access-date=21 January 2025 |website=The Mirror US}}</ref><ref name=":0" />