Daily Express

Daily Express

Front page, 19 November 2011
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Tabloid
Owner(s)	Richard Desmond
Publisher	Northern and Shell Media
Editor	Hugh Whittow
Founded	24 April 1900
Political alignment	Hard Euroscepticism Right-wing populism UKIP
Headquarters	10 Lower Thames Street, London, England EC3R 6EN
Circulation	391,626 (as of December 2016)
OCLC number	173337077
Website	express.co.uk

The Daily Express is a daily national middle markettabloid newspaper in the United Kingdom. It is the flagship title of Express Newspapers, a subsidiary of Northern & Shell (which is wholly owned by Richard Desmond). It was first published as a broadsheet in 1900 by Sir Arthur Pearson. Its sister paper The Sunday Express was launched in 1918. As of December 2016, it had an average daily circulation of 391,626.

The paper was acquired by Richard Desmond in 2000. Hugh Whittow has served as the paper's editor since February of 2011. The paper's editorial stances are often seen as aligned to the UK Independence Party (UKIP).

In addition to its sister paper, Express Newspapers also publishes the red top newspapers the Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday.

The Daily Express was founded in 1900 by Sir Arthur Pearson, with the first issue appearing on 24 April 1900. Pearson, who had lost his sight to glaucoma in 1913, sold the title to the future Lord Beaverbrook in 1916. It was one of the first papers to place news instead of advertisements on its front page along with carrying gossip, sports, and women's features. It was also the first newspaper in Britain to have a crossword puzzle.

The Express began printing copies in Manchester in 1927 and in 1931, the publication moved to 120 Fleet Street, a specially commissioned art deco building. Under Beaverbrook, the newspaper achieved a phenomenally high circulation, setting records for newspaper sales several times throughout the 1930s. Its success was partly due to its aggressive marketing campaign and a vigorous circulation war with other populist newspapers. Beaverbrook also discovered and encouraged a gifted editor named Arthur Christiansen who, at an early age, showed talent for writing and production. Christiansen became editor in October 1933. Under his editorial direction sales climbed from two million in 1936 to four million in 1949. He retired in 1957. The paper also featured Alfred Bestall's Rupert Bear cartoon and satirical cartoons by Carl Giles which it began publishing in the 1940s. On 24 March 1933, a front page headline titled "Judea Declares War on Germany" (because of the Anti-Nazi boycott of 1933) was published by the Daily Express. During the late thirties, the paper was a strong advocate of the appeasement policies of the Chamberlain government, due to the direct influence of its owner Lord Beaverbrook. The ruralist author Henry Williamson wrote for the paper on many occasions for half a century, practically the whole of his career. He also wrote for the Sunday Express at the beginning of his career.