The Mail on Sunday
The Mail on Sunday is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was founded in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the Daily Mail, was first published in 1896.
"Mail on Sunday" redirects here. For the album by Flo Rida, see Mail on Sunday (album).Type
In July 2011, following the closure of the News of the World, The Mail on Sunday sold 2.5 million copies a week—making it Britain's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper—but by September that had fallen back to just under 2 million.[2] Like the Daily Mail, it is owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), but the editorial staffs of the two papers are entirely separate. It had an average weekly circulation of 1,284,121 in December 2016; this had fallen to 673,525 by December 2022.[3][1] In April 2020, the Society of Editors announced that the Mail on Sunday was the winner of the Sunday Newspaper of the Year for 2019.[4]
History[edit]
The Mail on Sunday was launched on 2 May 1982 to complement the Daily Mail, the first time Associated Newspapers had published a national Sunday title since it closed the Sunday Dispatch in 1961. The first story on the front page was the Royal Air Force's bombing of Stanley airport in the Falkland Islands. The newspaper's owner, the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), initially wanted a circulation of 1.25 million. By the sixth week of its launch, sales were peaking at 700,000. Its sports coverage was seen to be among its weaknesses at the time of its launch. The Mail on Sunday's first back-page splash was a report from Lisbon on the roller hockey world championships, although this was on a match against Argentina during the Falklands War.[5]
Lord Rothermere, then the proprietor, brought in the Daily Mail's editor David English, who, with a task force of new journalists, redesigned and re-launched The Mail on Sunday. Over three-and-a-half months English managed to halt the paper's decline, and its circulation increased to 840,000. Three new sections were introduced: a sponsored partwork, the initial one forming a cookery book; then a colour comic supplement, an innovation in the British Sunday newspaper market); and lastly, You magazine.
The newspaper's next editor was Stewart Steven. The newspaper's circulation grew from around one million to just under two million during his time. Although its sister paper the Daily Mail has invariably supported the Conservative Party, Steven backed the SDP / Liberal Alliance in the 1983 General Election.[6] The subsequent editors were Jonathan Holborow, Peter Wright and Geordie Greig, who became editor of the Daily Mail in September 2018 and was replaced at the Sunday title by Ted Verity. In 2021, Verity left to edit the Daily Mail and was replaced by his deputy David Dillon.
In the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, the paper, unlike its daily counterpart, came out unequivocally in favour of the Remain campaign.[7] The Mail on Sunday has, following the change of editor from Geordie Greig to Ted Verity, shifted to a more Eurosceptic stance.[8]