Last week the Express Newspapers group was finally sold off, ending years of speculation about when United News & Media would let the papers go. The eventual buyer was OK! publisher Northern & Shell which snapped up the Daily Express, Sunday Express and Daily Star for £125 million. N&S emerged to seal the deal at the last minute, beating off competition from the Daily Mail & General Trust, the Hinduja brothers and the Hollinger Group, owner of the Daily Telegraph.
The Express’ recent history is not particularly rosy and it has been suspected that UNM would eventually dispose of the papers. In 1995 the group announced 220 redundancies, instigated to reduce operating expenses. Around this time the papers were suffering at the hands of a vicious price war between national newspaper publishers. A few months after the job losses speculation emerged that UNM was putting the two
Express titles up for sale. Whilst United refused to comment on the rumours, a month later Andrew Neil, now editor-in-chief at Press Holdings, confirmed that he was putting together a bid for the titles. Neil’s take-over failed to materialise. In 1996 there was speculation that the sales house of the
Telegraph and the
Express were to be combined into one operation. This also failed to materialise.
In 1998, with sales of the Daily and Sunday Express continuing to drop, Rosie Boycott moved over from the editor’s chair at the Independent to take the reigns of the ailing titles. She remains with the Express, although has yet to reverse the falling circulation and readership. Also in 1998 the Daily Star began a process of moving itself slightly more upmarket in an attempt to build circulation – at the title’s peak in 1986 it sold over 1.4 million copies but now manages around 550,000.
Express Newspapers split with its ad agency Leo Burnett at the end of 1998 after a test campaign in the North never made it to the national scene. In April 2000 the Express became the Daily Express once again as part of a centenary revamp, offering a ‘cleaner and more modern look.’
Despite all these changes over the last five years, both circulation and readership of Express Newspapers three titles have continued to fall. A comparison of April-September 1995 to 2000 shows the Daily Express circulation down 16% at just over one million – readership is down 27.3% at 2.2 million. The Express‘ main rivals, the two Mail titles, on the other have been flourishing with strong sales and readership growth since 1995.
