Daily Record (Scotland)
Encyclopedia
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
tabloid newspaper based in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
. It had been the best-selling daily paper in Scotland for many years with a paid circulation in August 2011 of 307,794 (ABC). It is now outsold by its arch-rival the Scottish Sun which in September 2010 had a circulation of 339,586 in Scotland (ABC). Current circulation is less than half the all-time high of 743,000 achieved in 1983 when it enjoyed the second highest market saturation in the world.
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 MirrorTrinity Mirror
Trinity Mirror plc is a large British newspaper and magazine publisher. It is Britain's biggest newspaper group, publishing 240 regional papers as well as the national Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People, and the Scottish Sunday Mail and Daily Record. Its headquarters are at Canary Wharf in...
in 1999, from the estate of Robert Maxwell
Robert Maxwell
Ian Robert Maxwell MC was a Czechoslovakian-born British media proprietor and former Member of Parliament , who rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire...
.
Daily Record PM
In August 2006, the paper launched afternoon editions in GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
entitled Record PM. Both papers initially had a cover price of 15p, but in January 2007, it was announced that they would become freesheets
Free daily newspaper
Free daily newspapers are distributed free of charge, either in central places in cities and towns, or with other newspapers. The revenues of such newspapers are based on advertising.-In the U.S.:...
, which are distributed on the streets of the city centres. It was simultaneously announced that new editions were to be released in Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
and Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
. The PM is no longer published by the Daily Record.
Political involvement
The paper supports and has a close relationship with the Scottish Labour PartyScottish Labour Party
The Scottish Labour Party is the section of the British Labour Party which operates in Scotland....
. For example, Helen Liddell
Helen Liddell
Helen Lawrie Liddell, Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Monklands East from 1994 to 1997, and then for Airdrie and Shotts until 2005, whereafter she became the British High Commissioner to Australia until 2009...
, a former Labour Secretary of State for Scotland
Secretary of State for Scotland
The Secretary of State for Scotland is the principal minister of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Scotland. He heads the Scotland Office , a government department based in London and Edinburgh. The post was created soon after the Union of the Crowns, but was...
was employed on the newspaper. The then Labour-led Scottish Executive also gave the Daily Record £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
1 million in advertising revenue while only giving £40,000 to The Sun, despite both newspapers having similar circulation figures. The newspaper donated £10,000 to the Labour Party in 2007. This has led to accusations that by following such a fervently pro-Labour line, the newspaper has damaged the interests of its owners, because circulation has almost halved in the past 20 years and has now fallen significantly below that of the Scottish edition of The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
. While 61% of readers supported the Labour Party, only 7% supported the Liberal Democrats, the lowest percentage of any newspaper.
The Daily Record is vehemently against Scottish independence
Scottish independence
Scottish independence is a political ambition of political parties, advocacy groups and individuals for Scotland to secede from the United Kingdom and become an independent sovereign state, separate from England, Wales and Northern Ireland....
. On the day of the 2007 Scottish Parliament election
Scottish Parliament election, 2007
The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999...
, it ran a front page editorial attacking the SNP
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....
.
The Daily Record, along with Brian Souter
Brian Souter
Sir Brian Souter , is a Scottish businessman. He is the co-founder of the Stagecoach Group, along with his sister, Ann Gloag. He is also widely known for his controversial public statements and for his attempt to keep Section 28 in law, which led to widespread accusations of homophobia...
, spearheaded the "Keep the Clause
Keep the Clause campaign
The Keep the Clause campaign was a privately funded political campaign organised in 2000 with the aim of resisting the repeal of legislation known as Clause 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 in Scotland and the United Kingdom, which forbade local authorities to "intentionally promote...
" campaign which aimed to prevent the Scottish Parliament
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
from repealing Section 28
Section 28
Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 caused the controversial addition of Section 2A to the Local Government Act 1986 , enacted on 24 May 1988 and repealed on 21 June 2000 in Scotland, and on 18 November 2003 in the rest of Great Britain by section 122 of the Local Government Act 2003...
. This law prevented local authorities from "promoting homosexuality". The campaign ended in failure when Section 28 was repealed by 99 votes to 17.
Editors
- 1998: Martin Clarke
- 2000: Peter Cox
- 2003: Bruce Waddell