Daily Record (Scotland)

Daily Record

Front page, 4 December 2007
Type Daily newspaper
Format Tabloid
Owner(s) Trinity Mirror
Editor Murray Foote[1]
Founded 1895
Political alignment Labour Party, Pro-Union
Headquarters Glasgow, Scotland
Circulation 190,985 [2] (as of March 2015)
ISSN 0956-8069
OCLC number 500344244
Website DailyRecord.co.uk
Daily Record building at Central Quay, Glasgow

The Daily Record, part of Trinity Mirror, is a Scottish tabloid newspaper based in Glasgow. It is published six days a week, and its sister paper is the Sunday Mail.

The Daily Record had a paid circulation in March 2015 of 190,985 (ABC), a drop of 11.1% year on year.[2] According to NRS PADD figures,[3] the Daily Record is by far the leading news brand in Scotland with a total audience of 3.1 million (rising to 3.4 million including the Sunday Mail). This compares with The Scottish Sun's audience in Scotland of 1.41 million and The Scotsman at 1.13 million.

History

The Daily Record was founded in 1895. The North British Daily Mail ceased publication in 1901 and was then incorporated into the Daily Record, which was renamed the Daily Record and Mail. Lord Kemsley bought the paper for £1 million in 1922, forming a controlling company known as Associated Scottish Newspapers Limited. Production was transferred from Renfield Lane to 67 Hope Street in 1926. In 1971 the Daily Record became the first European newspaper to be printed with run-of-paper colour, and was the first British national to introduce computer page make-up technology. It was purchased by Trinity Mirror in 1999,[4] from the estate of Robert Maxwell.

Historical copies of the Daily Record from the years 1914 to 1918 are available to search and view in digitised form at The British Newspaper Archive.[5]

Daily Record PM

In August 2006, the paper launched afternoon editions in Glasgow and Edinburgh entitled Record PM.[6] Both papers initially had a cover price of 15p, but in January 2007, it was announced that they would become freesheets, which are distributed on the streets of the city centres.[7] It was simultaneously announced that new editions were to be released in Aberdeen and Dundee.[7] The PM is no longer published by the Daily Record.

Political involvement

Politically, the Daily Record supported the conservative Unionist Party until the 1964 general election, when it switched its allegiance to the Labour Party. The paper continues to support the Labour Party and has a close relationship with it, including donating £10,000 to the party in 2007.[8] It opposes both the Scottish National Party (SNP) and Scottish independence. On the day of the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, it ran a front-page editorial attacking the SNP.[9] Since Murray Foote became editor in February 2014, the publication's stance has become less clear cut.[10] Headlines such as "Scottish lives considered cheap by UK defence bosses"[11] regarding the UK's Trident nuclear deterrent are seen as pro-independence by some.

For many years there has been a close relationship between Daily Record journalists and Labour Party politicians in Scotland, and a revolving door between newspaper staff and Labour advisers. Helen Liddell went from being General Secretary of the Scottish Labour Party to being Robert Maxwell’s Head of Corporate Affairs at the Daily Record (1988-1991). Tom Brown worked as one of the Daily Record’s highest-profile columnists (1982-2003) and served as its political editor, before advising his friend, First Minister Henry McLeish. Paul Sinclair was political editor of the Daily Record (2000-2005), before becoming a special advisor to Douglas Alexander, and then to Gordon Brown. He has been Johann Lamont's special adviser and official spokesperson since 2011.[12] Labour peer, and former MP and MSP, Lord Watson of Invergowrie has reflected that ‘the one paper no Labour MP or MSP can afford to ignore is the Daily Record'.[13]

The Daily Record, along with Brian Souter, spearheaded the "Keep the Clause" campaign which aimed to prevent the Scottish Parliament from repealing Section 28. This law prevented local authorities from promoting "the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship" in state schools. Section 28 was eventually repealed in Scotland in 2000 by 99 votes to 17 in the Scottish Parliament, and was repealed in England and Wales in 2003. Scottish Labour Leader Kezia Dugdale is a weekly columnist in the paper, every Monday

Editors

1998: Martin Clarke
2000: Peter Cox
2003: Bruce Waddell
2011: Allan Rennie
2014: Murray Foote

See also

References

  1. Greenslade, Roy (6 February 2014). "New editors for Scotland's Daily Record and Sunday Mail". The Guardian (Guardian News and Media). Retrieved 11 August 2014.
  2. 1 2 "The Media in Figures: Sales in Scotland of national newspapers". allmediascotland.com.
  3. "NRS PADD: mobile continues to boost newsbrand readership". MediaTel. Archived from the original on 10 December 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  4. Trinity Mirror website, History page, http://www.trinitymirror.com/our-company/history/
  5. Digitised copies of the Daily Record
  6. Daily Record launches PM editions, Trinity Mirror, 22 August 2006
  7. 1 2 Daily Record PM drops cover price, BBC News, 5 January 2007
  8. "SNP steps up its borrowing despite big donations". The Herald (Herald & Times Group). 22 August 2007.
  9. "THINK ABOUT IT". Daily Record (Trinity Mirror). 3 May 2007. Retrieved 1 September 2013.
  10. "Which way will Scotland’s tabloids go on independence?". The Conversation (website). 6 March 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
  11. "Scottish lives considered cheap by UK defence bosses". Daily Record (Trinity Mirror). 8 January 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
  12. Hassan, Gerry and Shaw, Eric, The Strange Death of Labour Scotland (Edinburgh University Press, 2012), p. 215.
  13. Watson, Mike, Year Zero: An Inside View of the Scottish Parliament (Polygon, 2001), p. 59.

External links

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