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 Front page, 4 December 2007 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner | Reach plc |
| Editor | Neil McIntosh |
| Founded | 1895; 130 years ago (1895) |
| Headquarters | Glasgow, Scotland |
| Circulation | 38,854 (as of September 2025)[1] |
| Sister newspapers | Sunday Mail |
| ISSN | 0956-8069 |
| OCLC number | 500344244 |
| Website | dailyrecord |
TheDaily Record is a Scottish nationaltabloid newspaper based inGlasgow. The newspaper is published Monday–Saturday and its website is updated on an hourly basis, seven days a week. TheRecord's sister title is theSunday Mail. Both are owned byReach plc and have a close kinship with the UK-wideDaily Mirror.
TheRecord covers UK news and sport with a Scottish focus. Its website boasts the largest readership of any publisher based in Scotland.[citation needed] The paper was at the forefront of technological advances in publishing throughout the 20th century and became the first European daily newspaper to be produced in full colour.[2]
As theRecord's print circulation has declined in line with other national papers, it has focused increasing attention on expanding itsdigital news operation.[3]
Neil McIntosh was announced as the latest editor of the Daily Record in August 2025.[4]
TheDaily Record was first published in 1895 in Glasgow as a sister title to theNorth British Daily Mail.
TheMail – which was not linked to the London-based newspaper ofthe same name – was the first daily newspaper to be published in Glasgow when launched in 1847. It was among the first papers to offer readers in Scotland the latest political and business news direct from London. Publishers based outside the UK capital were then reliant on correspondents sending information in the post, which could take days to arrive.
The rapid expansion of the British railway network in the 1840s revolutionised the postal service as letters could now be sent from London to Scotland overnight, making daily newspapers produced outside of the south-east commercially viable.[5]
Sir Charles Cameron, one of the most celebrated Scottish journalists of his day, became editor of theMail in 1864 and oversaw its expansion.
By 1895 Glasgow was a global industrial centre and its population was approaching one million.[6] TheDaily Record was launched to meet the increasing appetite for reading material and also to take advantage of the huge demand for advertising space from the city's booming commercial sector.
TheRecord was a product of theAmalgamated Press company established byAlfred Harmsworth, the press baron who would become Lord Northcliffe. The paper was first printed at a factory in Frederick Lane.
The daily edition of theMail ceased publication in 1901 and was incorporated into theRecord, which was renamed theDaily Record and Mail.[7] The separateSunday Mail continued publication and survives to this day.
In 1904, the paper's growing success was reflected when theRecord moved into a purpose-built headquarters at Renfield Lane in Glasgow city centre. The five-storey building was designed by the eminent Scottish architectCharles Rennie Mackintosh.[8]
Charles Mackintosh wanted to maximise light in the poorly-lit lane and adopted a striking use of colour on the exterior, combining yellow sculpted sandstone with blue and white glazed reflective bricks. The lower floors were used for newspaper production while the upper levels were used by editorial and commercial staff.
Lord Kemsley bought theDaily Record, Sunday Mail and another newspaper, theGlasgow Evening News, for £1 million in 1922. He formed a controlling company known asAssociated Scottish Newspapers Ltd. Larger premises were required for the three titles and production was switched from the Mackintosh building to a new building at 67 Hope Street in 1926.[9]
TheRecord, Sunday Mail andEvening News were all sold to the London-basedMirror Group in 1955. Glasgow was by then still served by three evening newspapers, despite the city's population having peaked. TheEvening News was closed in January 1957.
Production of theRecord andSunday Mail moved to a purpose-built office andprinting plant atAnderston Quay in 1971.[9]
TheRecord made British newspaper history on 7 October 1936 by publishing the first colour advertisement seen in a daily title – a full page advertising Dewar's White Label Whisky. It took some time for colour advertisements to become popular across other newspapers as printing techniques of the time could lead to smudging.[7]
In June 1936, the Record also published what was hailed as the first colour photograph to accompany a news story when the paper printed an image of then-exiled Ethiopian emperorHaile Selassie upon his visit to the west of Scotland, where he stayed atCastle Wemyss.[10]
In 1971 theDaily Record became the first European newspaper to be printed in "full colour" and was the first British national title to introduce computer page make-up technology. This was made by possible by the opening of a purpose-built printing plant atAnderston Quay on the River Clyde.
The switch to colour printing was overseen by editor Derek Webster and saw the paper's circulation jump to 750,000 copies per day. Printers from around the world, including a team fromAsahi Shimbun in Japan, visited the Record's Glasgow plant to learn about the potential of the new printing press.[11]
By the time of the UKgeneral election of 1970, theDaily Record was described as one of "the two best-selling Scottish newspapers"[12] along with the Scottish edition of theDaily Express.
The post-war years were a time of intense competition among daily newspapers across the UK to attract both readers and lucrative advertising business. The competition was particularly fierce among the Scottish press,[13] which served a country with an above average number of papers despite a population of just over five million.
The rivalry between theRecord and theExpress to be first to publish exclusive stories was at its height during the 1960s and 1970s, an era when most London-based newspapers had yet to establish themselves in Scotland.[14]
The Scottish edition of the rivalExpress was drastically scaled back with large job losses in 1974,[15] by which time the Record had become the biggest-selling newspaper in Scotland.
TheRecord's dominance of the daily newspaper market was challenged whenRupert Murdoch launched a well-funded Scottish edition ofThe Sun in 1987. The new title's launch editor was Jack Irvine, who was poached from theRecord by Murdoch.
In 2006 the Scottish edition ofThe Sun claimed to have finally over taken theRecord in terms of print copies being sold each day. This was the result of aggressive cost-cutting, which saw theSun sold for just 10p per copy – half the cost of theRecord at the time.[16]
TheRecord and its sister title, theSunday Mail, were purchased byTrinity Mirror in 1999,[17] from the estate ofRobert Maxwell.
| Year (period) | Average circulation per issue |
|---|---|
| 2005 (October)[18] | 454,427 |
| 2010 (January)[19] | 323,831 |
| 2012 (May)[20] | 281,465 |
| 2015 (May)[21] | 193,907 |
| 2016 (December)[22] | 160,557 |
| 2017 (January)[23] | 155,772 |
| 2019 (June)[24] | 111,524 |
| 2019 (December)[25] | 104,906 |
| 2021 (January)[26] | 85,769 |
| 2022 (January)[27] | 75,696 |
| 2023 (February)[28] | 61,117 |
| 2024 (February)[29] | 52,264 |
Historical copies of theDaily Record from its launch in 1895 until 1999 are available to search and view in digitised form at theBritish Newspaper Archive.[30]
In August 2006, the paper launched afternoon editions inGlasgow andEdinburgh entitledRecord PM.[31] Both papers initially had a cover price of 15p, but in January 2007, it was announced that they would becomefreesheets, which are distributed on the streets of the city centres.[32] It was simultaneously announced that new editions were to be released inAberdeen andDundee.[32] ThePM is no longer published by theDaily Record.
TheRecord endorsedHarold Wilson ahead of the1964 general election and supported Labour at every subsequent national election for the next forty years. The paper has taken a much more critical stance towards the party in the 21st century, coinciding with Labour's decline as an electoral force in Scotland.[33]
The paper is a vigorous promoter of Scottish industries and associated trade unions. It was particularly critical ofMargaret Thatcher during her premiership and blamedConservative Party economic policies for the closure of numerous factories, shipyards and foundries throughout Scotland in the 1980s and 1990s.
TheRecord campaigned doggedly to save theRavenscraig steel works, a major employer in the west of Scotland, and organised a mass petition of support which was in turn handed in at Downing Street.[34] The plant was ultimately closed in 1992.
Like its sister title theMirror, theRecord opposed the Conservative Party under the premiership ofBoris Johnson.[35]
TheRecord backed Labour's policy of creating aScottish Parliament, despite opposition from the then Conservative Government, throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The paper advocated for a "Yes-Yes" vote at the1997 devolution referendum.[36]
TheRecord was opposed to theScottish National Party (SNP) and both Scottish independence and urged voters to stick with Labour at the2007 Holyrood election, which the party lost by one seat.
At the2021 Scottish Parliament election, theRecord accepted the SNP would emerge as the largest party in terms of seats. It called onNicola Sturgeon to work with Labour if she failed to win an outright majority.[37]
Regarding theprospect of a second Scottish independence referendum, the paper said in a pre-election editorial: "If the people of Scotland vote for parties that support another referendum, that is what should happen."[37]
TheRecord has campaigned for the decriminalisation of drug use in Scotland since 2019.[38] In several special editions, it spoke to doctors, politicians, academics, recovery groups and former drug addicts, of whom the overwhelming majority advocate treating drugs as a health matter rather than a criminal one. The paper states that criminal convictions inappropriately punish drug users for their addictions, handing down fines they cannot afford to pay or custodial sentences that make their drug problems worse. The paper has also highlighted the use ofdrug consumption facilities, stating that they encourage addicts into treatment, reduce the amount of heroin needles on city pavements, counter the spread of diseases such as HIV and ultimately save lives. However, it stated that there would need to be changes to current law in the UK, such as decriminalising the bringing in of certain drugs to these facilities, before it would be possible to open and effectively run such facilities. The paper said that the biggest route to progress is through properly fundingharm reduction and rehab programmes.[39]
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