Media Lifeline: The Mail on Sunday at 25

Launching an innovative colour supplement helped cement The Mail on Sunday's future.

1982: After a shaky launch under the editor Bernard Shrimsley, Associated Newspapers decides to go for a rescue relaunch within months. In October, The Daily Mail's legendary editor David English, takes charge. He brings in Stewart Steven as the editor and oversees the addition of a colour supplement. This innovative magazine, called You, proves the most important element in a popular new package.

1994: The Mail on Sunday has been one of the newspaper industry's success stories of the 80s, but by the early 90s, it was starting to look tired. In 1993, a new "review" style supplement called Night & Day is introduced, and You begins its evolution into a supplement targeted more specifically at women. In 1994, Financial Mail is also introduced.

1998: Peter Wright (still the incumbent in 2007) becomes the paper's fourth editor, succeeding Jonathan Holborow, who had replaced Steven in 1992. Holborow's innovations, such as the new supplements, had been a success, and circulation had been comfortably maintained above two million; but the main paper was now perceived (not least by the new Associated editor-in-chief, Paul Dacre) as rather dull.

2003: Now there's upheaval on the management side as the managing director, Mike Ironside, leaves. He is replaced by Stephen Miron - a Mail on Sunday stalwart, who had worked for the paper for ten years before joining The Independent as the commercial director.

2007: As the paper prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary, it launches a new marketing initiative, which focuses on the paper's first-ever cinema ad. The film features an epic battle of the sexes to promote its main supplements, You and Live, the title that had replaced Night & Day in 2005.

Fast forward... 2032: Miron, who, owing to medical advances, is still managing The Mail's 24/7 news and entertainment platforms, now digital, asks to be released from his contract. It's left to Guy Zitter (living on monkey glands and red wine), to sort the 50th bash.

Topics