Daily Express

British newspaper

Also known as: “Express”, “Sunday Express”

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Daily Express, morning newspaper published in London, known for its sensational treatment of news and also for its thorough coverage of international events. The Sunday edition is published as the Sunday Express.

Since its founding in 1900, the Express has aggressively appealed to a mass readership; it is a perennial competitor with other popular dailies for circulation leadership, which it not infrequently claims. Its determination to cover foreign news thoroughly was reflected as early as World War I, when its war correspondent, Percival Phillips, a U.S. national, was knighted for his war reporting. In contemporary Britain the Daily Express ardently promoted British products and symbols of national identity while maintaining an independent political stance. Like its sister publication the Daily Star, it is a tabloid newspaper, but the Sunday Express is published in a combined broadsheet and tabloid format. By the end of the 20th century, the circulation of the Daily Express had reached about one million. The paper was purchased in November 2000 by Northern & Shell, a London publishing company founded by Richard Desmond, who had earned his fortune in adult entertainment and publishing.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn.