The
Daily Express was founded by Arthur
Pearson in 1900. It created an immediate impact as it was the
first ever newspaper to carry news instead of advertisements on its
front page.
In
1916 the newspaper was purchased by Max
Aitken, the Conservative MP for
Ashton-Under-Lyne. He told his readers that his newspaper was "the
prophet of equal opportunity and the unrelenting opponent of that
system of preferred chances which gives one man an unfair opportunity
over a more competent rival."
David Lloyd George, recognised Aitken's
skill as a mass communicator and appointed him as Minister of Information
in his First World War coalition government.
After
the war Aitken (granted the title Lord
Beaverbrook in 1918) became Britain's leading newspaper magnate.
He established the Sunday Express and acquired the Evening
Standard and in 1931 commissioned the impressive Daily Express
Building in Fleet Street. By 1936 the Daily Express had the
largest circulation in the world (2.25 million).
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