- Mirror Group
- The Mirror Group—inevitably associated in the minds of many with the name of Robert Maxwell, who, in pursuit of his ambitious plans for a media empire, bought the Daily Mirror from Reed in 1984 and died in 1991—is a major force in the British news media. Founded in 1903 with the specific intention of appealing to a female readership, the Daily Mirror has long been an important popular national tabloid newspaper. In 1997 The Mirror, as it had become, was Britain’s second best-selling daily paper. With circulation figures of around 2.3 million, it claimed a share of nearly 17 percent in a total market of about 13.2 million copies (or 21 percent of the popular market). It was, however, outsold by the Sun, which sold 3.7 million copies (28 percent of the total, or 35 percent of the popular market) and appeared to be pulling even further ahead, stretching the lead by over half a million in five years.Mirror Group is also strong in the popular Sunday paper market, with two papers that together are nearly as popular as the News of the World. The Sunday Mirror (the Sunday Pictorial until 1963) had a circulation in 1997 of a little more than two million copies (18 percent of the popular market), and the Sunday People sold about 1.8 million copies (another 15 percent).CHRISTOPHER SMITH
Encyclopedia of contemporary British culture . Peter Childs and Mike Storry). 2014.
