Everything about Telegraph Group totally explained
» For "The Daily Telegraph" in Australia, see The Daily Telegraph (Australia). For other uses of "The Telegraph", see The Telegraph (disambiguation).
The Daily Telegraph is a
British broadsheet newspaper, founded in 1855. Excepting the
Financial Times, it's the only remaining daily
newspaper printed on traditional
newsprint in the
Broadsheet format in the
United Kingdom, as most other broadsheet publications have converted to the smaller
tabloid/
compact or
Berliner formats. Its sister paper,
The Sunday Telegraph, was founded in 1961. In October 2007, the
Telegraph was the highest selling British quality paper, with a certified average
daily circulation of 882,413. This compared with a circulation of 642,895 for
The Times, 240,134 for
The Independent, and 364,513 for
The Guardian. According to a
MORI survey conducted in 2004, 61% of
Telegraph readers support the
Conservative Party.
Founding history
The Daily Telegraph was established on
29 June 1855 by
Colonel Arthur B. Sleigh, who used it as a platform to campaign against the
Duke of Cambridge becoming commander-in-chief of the British army. He controlled it only briefly before selling it to his printer,
Joseph Moses Levy, father of the first
Baron Burnham. Levy appointed his sons as editors and relaunched the paper on
17 September. He soon reduced the price of the paper to a penny. Within twelve months the new paper was outselling
The Times.
In 1908,
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany gave a controversial
interview
to
The Daily Telegraph that severely damaged Anglo-German relations and added to international tensions which eventually culminated in
World War I.
In 1928 the son of the 1st
Baron Burnham sold it to the 1st
Viscount Camrose, in partnership with his brother
Viscount Kemsley and the 1st
Baron Iliffe. Both the Camrose (Berry) and Burnham (Levy-Lawson) families remained involved in management until
Conrad Black took control in 1986.
In 1937 the newspaper absorbed
The Morning Post which traditionally espoused a
conservative position and sold predominantly amongst the retired officer class. Originally
William Ewart Berry, 1st
Viscount Camrose bought
The Morning Post with the intention of publishing it alongside the
Daily Telegraph, but poor sales of the former led him to merge the two. For some years the paper was retitled
The Daily Telegraph and Morning Post before it reverted to just
The Daily Telegraph.
The Sunday Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph's sister Sunday paper was founded in 1961. The writer Sir
Peregrine Worsthorne is probably the best known journalist associated with the title (1961-97), eventually being editor for three years from 1986. In 1989 the Sunday title was briefly merged in to a seven-day operation under
Max Hastings' overall control. In 2005 the paper was revamped, a glossy fashion magazine being added to the more traditional review section. It costs £1.90 and includes separate Money, Home and Living, Sport, Travel and Business suppliments.
Editors
Its editors have included:
Recent history
The Daily Telegraph is owned by the
Barclay brothers. Until January 2004, the newspaper group was controlled by
Canadian businessman
Conrad Black. Black, through his holding company
Ravelston Corporation, owned
Hollinger Inc. which in turn owns 30% of
Hollinger International and, under a deal masterminded by
Andrew Knight through which Black bought the newspaper group in 1986, owns 78% of the voting rights. Hollinger Inc. also owns the liberal
Chicago Sun-Times, the
Jerusalem Post, and conservative publications such as
The Spectator.
On
18 January 2004, Black was dismissed as
chairman of the Hollinger International
board over allegations of financial wrongdoing. Black was also sued by the company. Later that day it was reported that the
Barclay brothers had agreed to purchase Hollinger Inc. from Black, giving them the controlling interest in the newspaper group. They then launched a
takeover bid for the rest of the group,
valuing the company at
£200m. However, a suit has been filed by the Hollinger International board with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to try to block Black selling
shares in the company until an investigation into his dealings have been completed. Black filed a counter-suit but eventually United States judge Leo Strine sided with the Hollinger International board and blocked Black from selling his Hollinger Inc. shares and interests to the twins. On Sunday
7 March, the twins announced they were launching another takeover bid, this time just for the
Daily Telegraph and its Sunday sister paper rather than the whole stable. Current owner of the
Daily Express, Richard Desmond, was also interested in purchasing the paper, selling his interest in several pornographic magazines to finance the initiative. Desmond withdrew in March 2004 when the price climbed above £600m, as did
Daily Mail and General Trust plc on
17 June.
Eventually, the Barclay brothers purchased Hollinger, and with it the
Telegraph, for around £665m in late June 2004.
Amidst the unraveling of the takeover Sir David Barclay suggested that
The Daily Telegraph might in the future no longer be the "house newspaper" of the Conservatives. In an interview with
The Guardian he said, "Where the government are right we'll support them."
The editorial board endorsed the Conservative party in the 2005 general election.
15 November 2004 saw the tenth anniversary of the launch of the
Telegraph's website Electronic Telegraph. Now re-launched as telegraph.co.uk, the website was the UK's first national newspaper online. Monday 8th May 2006 saw the first stage of a major redesign of the Telegraph's website, based on a wider page layout and greater prominence for audio, video and journalist blogs.
On
10 October 2005, the
Daily Telegraph relaunched to incorporate a tabloid sports section and a new standalone business section. The
Daily Mail's star columnist and political analyst
Simon Heffer left that paper in October 2005 to rejoin the
Daily Telegraph, where he's become associate editor. Heffer, known for his combative style and wit, has written two columns a week for the
Telegraph since late October 2005 and is a regular contributor to the news podcast.
November, 2005 - launches the first regular podcast service by a newspaper in the UK.
Just before Christmas 2005, it was announced that the
Telegraph titles will be moving from Canada Place in Canary Wharf, to Victoria Plaza near Victoria Station in central London. The new office features a 'hub and spoke' layout for the newsroom, which will produce content for print and online editions.
In October 2006, with its relocation to Buckingham Palace Road, Victoria, the Telegraph rebranded itself the Telegraph Media Group, repositioning itself as a multimedia company.
Website
telegraph.co.uk is the online version of the newspaper. It includes the articles from the print additions of
The Daily Telegraph and
The Sunday Telegraph as well as web-only content such as breaking news, pictures galleries and blogs.
The site, which has more than 100 million page impressions per month and more than 11 million unique users, was named UK Consumer Website of the Year 2007 by the Association of Online Publishers .
The site is overseen by Edward Roussel, digital editor of Telegraph Media Group, and Marcus Warren as editor. Other staff include Shane Richmond, communities editor, Ian Douglas, head of digital production, and Chei Amlani, online sport editor.
The site, which has has been the focus of the group's recent efforts to create an integrated news operation producing content for print and online from the same newsroom, is awaiting a relaunch involving the use of the
Escenic content management system, popular among northern European and Scandinavian newspaper groups.
History
The website was launched, under the name
electronic telegraph at midday on
15 November 1994 at the headquarters of
The Daily Telegraph at
Canary Wharf in
London Docklands. It was Europe's first daily web-based newspaper.
Initially the site published only the top stories from the print edition of the newspaper but it gradually increased its coverage until virtually all of the newspaper was carried online and the website was also publishing original material.
The website, hosted on a
Sun Microsystems Sparc 20 server and connected via a 64 kbit/s
leased line from
Demon Internet, was edited by
Ben Rooney. Key personnel behind the launch of the site were the then marketing manager of
The Daily Telegraph,
Hugo Drayton, and the webmaster
Fiona Carter. Drayton later became managing director of the newspaper.
An early coup for the site was the publication of articles by
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard on
Bill Clinton and the
Whitewater controversy. The availability of the articles online brought a large American audience to the site. In 1997, the Clinton administration issued a 331-page report that accused Evans-Pritchard of peddling "right-wing inventions".
Derek Bishton, who by then had succeeded Rooney as editor, later wrote: "In the days before ET it would have been highly unlikely that anyone in the US would have been aware of Evans-Pritchard's work - and certainly not to the extent that the White House would be forced to issue such a lengthy rebuttal."
Bishton, who is now consulting editor for Telegraph Media Group, was followed as editor by
Richard Burton, who was made redundant in August 2006. Edward Roussel replaced Burton.
My Telegraph
Telegraph.co.uk offers a platform for readers where they can host their own blog, save articles and network with other readers. Launched in May 2007, My Telegraph won a Cross Media Award from international newspaper organisation Ifra in October 2007 . One of the judges,
Robert Cauthorn, described the project as "the best deployment of blogging yet seen in any newspaper anywhere in the world".
Posts appear unmoderated, and registered users can leave comments on their own and other blogs (including Telegraph journalist blogs) without waiting for approval, but comments on stories on the main website must be approved by the website's moderators before appearing on the page.
Political stance
The Daily Telegraph has been politically
conservative in modern times. The personal links between the paper's editors and the leadership of the
Conservative Party, also known as
Tories, along with the paper's influence over Conservative activists, has resulted in the paper commonly being referred to, especially in
Private Eye, as the
Torygraph. and "Daily Mailograph"
Dave Swarbrick in 1999, prompting much embarrassing publicity for the newspaper, and Swarbrick's remark "It's not the first time I've died in Coventry."
Dorothy Southworth Ritter, the widow of Tex Ritter and mother of John Ritter, in August 2001. She eventually died in 2003, two months after her son's death.
Ballet dancer Katharine Sergava in 2003, which also caused The New York Times to print an erroneous obituary based on The Telegraph's.
On Wednesday, 24 February 1988, The Daily Telegraph was printed with the wrong date: Thursday 25 February was printed by mistake. This caused complaints from confused readers, but also inspired the first front page cartoon by Matt, who now has a cartoon on the front page of the Telegraph almost every day. The cartoon had the caption: "I hope I've a better Thursday than I did yesterday".
On Saturday, 26 August 2006, content from Claire Zulkey of MediaBistro Toolbox appeared on Melissa Whitworth's blog (MSN cache, original pulled off the site), leading to accusations of plagiarism. Whitworth later claimed that it had been published in error after she'd forwarded the piece to her editor.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Telegraph Group'.
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