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{{wikify|date=December 2011}}
The '''''Daily Mirror''''' is a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[newspaper]]. Founded in 1903, it became a very popular [[tabloid]] in the [[United Kingdom]]. Though it is less popular today, the ''Mirror'' is still published daily.

==History==
===Creation===
The ''Daily Mirror'' was launched on 2 November 1903 by Alfred Harmsworth (later Lord Northcliffe) as a newspaper for women, run by women. Harmsworth intended the newspaper to be "a mirror of feminine life ... entertaining without being frivolous, and serious without being dull".<ref>''Daily Mirror'' No. 1 (2 November 1903) page 3</ref> Along with women, he invited men to read the paper, which cost one [[Penny (British pre-decimal coin)|penny]].

=== ''The Daily Illustrated Mirror'' ===
The newspaper was not an immediate success.  In 1904, Harmsworth decided to turn it into a pictore newspaper. He changed the header to ''The Daily Illustrated Mirror'' and made [[Hamilton Fyfe]] editor; Fyfe then fired all the women [[Journalist|journalists]].<ref name="Albion">[[Albion (history journal)|Albion]] (1973) Vol 5, 2-page 150</ref> The paper ran as ''The Daily Illustrated Mirror'' from 26 January to 27 April 1904 (issues 72 to 150), then reverted to ''The Daily Mirror''. 

=== The new ''Daily Mirror'' ===
Unlike the old ''Daily Mirror'', the new version's first issue did not have [[Advertising|advertisements]] on the front page. Instead it featured news text and [[Engraving|engraved]] pictures of a [[Treason|traitor]] and an [[Actor|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 the tagline "A paper for men and women" was added to the newspaper's masthead (header).<ref>''Daily Illustrated Mirror'' issue 74, 28 January 1904</ref> This combination was more successful: by issue 92, the guaranteed [[Magazine circulation|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>

In 1913 Harmsworth sold the newspaper to his brother [[Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere|Harold Harmsworth]] (called Lord Rothermere beginning in 1914). Four years later, its price increased back 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 1 million copies a day, making ''The Daily Mirror'' the largest daily picture paper in the [[United Kingdom]].<ref name="DM4856">''Daily Mirror'' issue 4856, 19 May 1919</ref>

=== Changes in the 1930s ===
By the mid 1930s, the ''Mirror'' was struggling. With the ''Mail'', it had been a main casualty of the early 1930s circulation war that saw the ''[[Daily Herald (UK newspaper)|Daily Herald]]'' and the ''[[Daily Express]]'' establish circulations of more than two million. In response, Rothermere sold his [[Share (finance)|shares]] in the company.

In the late 1930s the paper moved from being a [[Conservatism|conservative]], [[Middle class|middle-class]] newspaper into a [[Left-wing politics|left-wing]] paper for the [[working class]]. It became the first British newspaper to adopt the visual style of [[New York City|New York]] [[Tabloid|tabloids]] like the ''[[New York Post]]''. By 1939, ''The Daily Mirror'' was selling 1.4&nbsp;million copies a day.

=== During World War II ===
The paper was threatened with closure during [[World War II]] after [[Winston Churchill]] thought one of its [[Cartoon|cartoons]] made fun of the [[Royal Navy|British navy]].  The cartoon showed a [[sailor]] clinging to a piece of wreckage. In fact, the cartoon was attacking the waste of [[Gasoline|petrol]] and other goods that sailors were trying to bring across the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] while avoiding [[Nazi Germany|Nazi Germany's]] [[Submarine|submarines]].<ref name="cassandra">{{citation |title=Cassandra: Reflections in a Mirror |year=1969 |url=https://archive.org/details/cassandrareflect0000conn |first=Robert |last=Connor |publisher=[[Orion Publishing Group|Cassell]] |publication-date=1969}}</ref>

=== The 1950s to 2000 ===
Thanks to its working-class readership, the ''Mirror'' grew into the United Kingdom's best-selling daily tabloid newspaper. 

In 1960 the ''Mirror'' bought Odhams Press, a British [[publishing]] company, acquiring the ''[[Daily Herald (UK newspaper)|Daily Herald]]'' (the popular daily paper of the [[labour movement]]). This was one of a series of [[Takeover|takeovers]] which created the [[IPC Media|International Publishing Corporation]] (IPC). 

The ''Mirror's'' management did not want the ''Herald'' competing with the ''Mirror'' for readers. In 1964, they relaunched the ''Herald'' as a mid-market paper, now named the ''[[The Sun (United Kingdom)|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 that competed directly with the ''Mirror''.  In 1978, the ''Sun'' overtook the ''Mirror'' in circulation, and in 1984 the ''Mirror'' was sold to [[Robert Maxwell]].

After Maxwell's death in 1991, the ''Mirror'' went through a protracted crisis. Eight years later, it [[Mergers and acquisitions|merged]] with the regional newspaper group Trinity to form [[Trinity Mirror]]. Trinity Mirror now prints the daily and Sunday ''Mirror'' at [[Watford and Oldham]].

===21st century===

In 2002, the ''Mirror'' changed its masthead [[logo]] from red to black, because the term "[[red tops|red top]]" is a name for a sensationalist mass-market tabloid.  At times the logo was blue. On 6 April 2005, the red top came back.

Under then-[[Editor-in-chief|editor]] [[Piers Morgan]], the ''Mirror'' opposed the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]] and ran many front-page articles that criticized 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.

On 4 November 2004, after [[George W. Bush]] was [[2004 United States presidential election|re-elected as United States President]], the ''Mirror'' ran a front-page [[headline]] titled "How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?". It gave a list of states and their average [[Intelligence quotient|IQs]], claiming that [[Electoral college|states which voted]] for Bush (except [[Virginia]]) were below average, while states that voted for Kerry were average or above. The article cited ''[[The Economist]]'' as the source for this information,<ref>{{citation |last=Sutherland |first=John |title=The Axis of Stupidity|work=The Guardian |date=11 November 2004 |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2004/nov/11/highereducation.uselections2004}}</ref> while in fact the list was published as a hoax.<ref>{{citation |publisher=[[Snopes]] |title=Fool Me Twice |url=http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/stateiq.asp |date=12 November 2004 |accessdate=19 July 2009}}</ref> 

After Piers Morgan resigned in 2004, Richard Wallace became the paper's editor. He was followed by Peter Willis (2012-2018) and Allison Phillips (2018 - present).<ref name="tabloidnation" />

In recent years, the paper's circulation has been overtaken by the ''Daily Mail's''.

== Editors ==

:1903-1904: Mary Howarth
:1904-1907: Hamilton Fyfe
:1907-1915: Alexander Kenealy
:1915-1916: Ed Flynn
:1916-1931: Alexander Campbell
:1931-1934: Leigh Brownlee
:1934-1948: Cecil Thomas
:1948-1953: Silvester Bolam
:1953-1961: Jack Nener
:1961-1971: Lee Howard
:1971-1974: Tony Miles
:1974-1975: Michael Christiansen
:1975-1985: Mike Molloy
:1985-1990: Richard Stott
:1990-1991: Roy Greenslade
:1991-1992: Richard Stott
:1992-1994: David Banks
:1994-1985: Colin Myler
:1995-2004: [[Piers Morgan]]
:2004-2012: Richard Wallace
:2012-2018: Peter Willis
:2018-present: Allison Phillips

Source: ''Tabloid Nation''<ref name="tabloidnation">{{citation |first=Chris |last=Horrie |title=Tabloid Nation: From the Birth of the Mirror to the Death of the Tabloid Newspaper |year=2003 |publication-date=1 October 2003 |publisher=André Deutsch |isbn=978-0-233-00012-1}}</ref> p.&nbsp;248.

== Other websites ==
{{commonscat}}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk|title=Official website}}
* {{cite web|url=http://m.mirror.co.uk|title=Official mobile website|access-date=18 January 2021|archive-date=25 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120825081206/http://m.mirror.co.uk/|url-status=dead}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
[[Category:Newspapers published in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1903 establishments in the United Kingdom]]