 | |
| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner(s) | Daily Mail and General Trust |
| Publisher | DMG Media |
| Editor | David Dillon |
| Founded | 2 May 1982; 43 years ago (1982-05-02) |
| Political alignment | Conservative |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Northcliffe House,Kensington,London, England |
| Circulation | 546,836 (as of March 2025)[1] |
| ISSN | 0263-8878 |
| Website | dailymail.co.uk/mailonsunday |
The Mail on Sunday is a Britishconservative newspaper, published in atabloid format. Founded in 1982 byLord Rothermere, it is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK. Its sister paper, theDaily Mail, was first published in 1896.
In July 2011, following the closure of theNews of the World,The Mail on Sunday sold 2.5 million copies a week—making it Britain's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper—but by September that had fallen back to just under 2 million.[2] Like theDaily Mail, it is owned by theDaily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), but the editorial staffs of the two papers are entirely separate.[3] It had an average weekly circulation of 1,284,121 in December 2016; this had fallen to 673,525 by December 2022.[3][4][1] In April 2020, the Society of Editors announced that theMail on Sunday was the winner of the Sunday Newspaper of the Year for 2019.[5]
The Mail on Sunday was launched on 2 May 1982 to complement theDaily Mail, the first time Associated Newspapers had published a national Sunday title since it closed theSunday Dispatch in 1961. The first story on the front page was theRoyal Air Force's bombing ofStanley airport in theFalkland Islands. The newspaper's owner, theDaily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), initially wanted acirculation of 1.25 million. By the sixth week of its launch, sales were peaking at 700,000. Its sports coverage was seen to be among its weaknesses at the time of its launch.The Mail on Sunday's first back-page splash was a report from Lisbon on theroller hockeyworld championships, although this was on a match against Argentina during theFalklands War.[6]
Lord Rothermere, then the proprietor, brought in theDaily Mail's editorDavid English, who, with a task force of new journalists, redesigned and re-launchedThe Mail on Sunday. Over three-and-a-half months English managed to halt the paper's decline, and its circulation increased to 840,000. Three new sections were introduced: a sponsoredpartwork, the initial one forming a cookery book; then a colour comic supplement, an innovation in the British Sunday newspaper market); and lastly,You magazine.
The newspaper's next editor wasStewart Steven. The newspaper's circulation grew from around one million to just under two million during his time. Although its sister paper theDaily Mail has invariably supported theConservative Party, Steven backed theSDP /Liberal Alliance in the1983 General Election.[7] The subsequent editors were Jonathan Holborow,Peter Wright andGeordie Greig, who became editor of theDaily Mail in September 2018 and was replaced at the Sunday title byTed Verity. In 2021, Verity left to edit the Daily Mail and was replaced by his deputyDavid Dillon.
In the2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, the paper, unlike its daily counterpart, came out unequivocally in favour of theRemain campaign.[8]The Mail on Sunday has, following the change of editor fromGeordie Greig toTed Verity, shifted to a moreEurosceptic stance.[9]
In January 2020,The Mail on Sunday was ordered to pay £180,000 in damages to a former council official inRochdale due to a false article from May 2017. It falsely alleged that the man issued taxi licences to drivers involved in thetown's child sexual abuse ring.[10] Waj Iqbal believed that the false accusations were solely because he was of the same Pakistani background as the abusers.[11]
In February 2021, the High Court found thatThe Mail on Sunday acted unlawfully when it published a letter thatMeghan, Duchess of Sussex had sent to her father.[12] The newspaper was sued for her £1.5 million legal fees,[13] and ordered to issue a front-page apology.[14]
Under Peter Wright's editorship of theMail on Sunday and his membership of thePress Complaints Commission (PCC), the Mail newspaper organisation withheld important evidence aboutphone hacking from the PCC when the latter held its inquiry into theNews of the World's interception of voicemail messages. Specifically, the PCC was not informed that fourMail on Sunday journalists—investigations editor Dennis Rice, news editor Sebastian Hamilton, deputy news editor David Dillon and feature writer Laura Collins—had been told by theMetropolitan Police in 2006 that their mobile phones had been hacked even though Wright, who was editor of theMail on Sunday, had been made aware of the hacking. The facts did not emerge until several years later, when they were revealed in evidence at theNews of the World phone hacking trial.[15]
Wright became a member of the PCC from May 2008.[16] He took over the place previously held by theDaily Mail's editor-in-chiefPaul Dacre, who had served on the body from 1999 to April 2008. The PCC issued two reports, in 2007 and 2009, which were compiled in ignorance of the significant information from theMail group about the hacking of its journalists’ phones. According toThe Guardian journalistNick Davies, whose revelations had resulted in theNews of the World phone hacking trial and subsequent conviction ofAndy Coulson, this reinforcedNews International's "rogue reporter" defence.[17] The PCC's 2009 report, which had rejected Davies' claims of widespread hacking at theNews of the World, was retracted when it became clear that they were true.[18] Wright and Dacre both failed to mention the hacking of the fourMail on Sunday staff in the evidence they gave to theLeveson Inquiry in 2012.[19]
In April 2022, theMail on Sunday published an article which alleged that unnamed Conservative PartyMPs claimed thatLabour's deputy leaderAngela Rayner tried to distract thePrime Minister,Boris Johnson, by crossing and uncrossing her legs.[20][21]
The article was widely condemned, with Johnson describing it as "sexist tripe".The Speaker of the House of Commons,Sir Lindsay Hoyle, called the story "misogynistic and offensive" and requested a meeting with theMail on Sunday's editor,David Dillon.[21] In response to the invitation, theDaily Mail published a front page headline which read: "No Mister Speaker: In the name of a free press, The Mail respectfully declines the Commons Speaker's summons...".[22]
TheIndependent Press Standards Organisation received 5,500 complaints about the article. It reported and investigated possible breaches of clauses 1 (accuracy), 3 (harassment) and 12 (discrimination) of theEditors' Code of Practice.[23]
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