DMG Media

Associated Newspaper Ltd was established in 1905 by brother newspaper barons Alfred and Harold Harmsworth. When Alfred died in 1922 without an heir, Harold Harmsworth acquired his controlling interest in Associated Newspapers for £1.6 million, and the next year bought the Hulton newspaper chain, which left Associated Newspapers in control of three national morning newspapers, three national Sunday newspapers, two London evening papers, four provincial daily newspapers, and three provincial Sunday newspapers.

Harold retired as chairman of Associated Newspapers in 1932 at the age of 64, and his son Esmond took over that role. He served as chairman until 1971, after which he assumed the titles of President and Director of Group Finance, and chairman of Daily Mail & General Trust Ltd, the parent company, from 1938 until his death. Harmsworth ran the businesses with sufficient skill that they remain firmly under family control today, majority ownership being voted by his grandson, Jonathan Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere (and a significant minority by Vyvyan Harmsworth, the 2nd Viscount's son by his third marriage). Jonathan Harmsworth is the chairman of the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT). Associated Newspapers changed its name to DMG Media in 2013.

In January 2022, DMGT delisted from the London Stock Exchange following a successful offer for DMGT by Rothermere Continuation Limited.

Associated-Rediffusion

In February 1954, with the passage of the Television Act 1954, Associated Newspapers joined forces with Taylorfilms and Rediffusion (the latter being a division of BET plc) into forming Associated-Rediffusion, winning the rights for London's weekday ITV service. They began broadcasting on 22 September 1955. During the partnership's first year, Associated-Rediffusion was losing money so fast that it was financially suffering; However, Associated-Rediffusion had managed to recover its financial security completely by October 1958. However, Associated-Rediffusion eventually lost its rights into broadcasting within London during August 1967.

Titles

dmg media publishes the following titles:

Daily Mail – the Daily Mail is a tabloid daily newspaper in the UK with a weekday print circulation of 900,000. Established in 1896 by Kennedy Jones, Harold and Alfred Harmsworth. It is edited by Ted Verity. Saturday's edition includes Weekend magazine, which focuses on the best of the week's TV and radio schedule.

The Mail on Sunday – The Mail on Sunday is the UK's biggest-selling national Sunday newspaper. Edited by Ted Verity, it is known for its investigative, exposé journalism and its lifestyle magazines You and Event.

MailOnline – MailOnline is the most-read English language newspaper website in the world with approximately 243 million unique visitors globally. Alongside its digital counterparts in the U.S. and Australia, it publishes roughly 1,700 stories, tens of thousands of photos, and more than 900 videos each day.

Legal action

On 27 April 2007, Associated Newspapers was ordered to pay undisclosed damages to Hugh Grant. He sued over claims made about his relationships with his former girlfriends in three separate tabloid articles, which were published in the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday on 18, 21 and 24 February. Grant's lawyer stated that all of the articles' "allegations and factual assertions are false."

In a written statement, Grant said he took the action because: "I was tired of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday papers publishing almost entirely fictional articles about my private life for their own financial gain. I'm also hoping that this statement in court might remind people that the so-called 'close friends' or 'close sources' on which these stories claim to be based almost never exist."

The publisher has also lost libel cases and paid damages to personalities including television presenter Thea Rogers, and Oisin Fanning, former CEO of Smart Telecom.

On 1 October 2019, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex announced via a statement that his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is suing Associated Newspapers over a private letter one of its newspapers, Mail on Sunday, had published. The handwritten letter, which Markle addressed to her father, Thomas Markle, was published by the paper in February 2019. The statement claims that the paper misused private information, copyright infringement and breached the UK's Data Protection Act 2018. Furthermore, the Duke and Duchess alleges the letter was published illegally and edited selectively to hide "lies" the paper had told about the Duchess. Prince Harry added that the legal action "hinges on one incident in a long and disturbing pattern of behavior" against his wife by British tabloid media.

Associated Newspapers was ordered to pay damages of £120,000 and published two apologies, in April and May 2019, to a charitable organisation for wrongly claiming links to terrorism.

On 24 February 2022, a spokesperson for Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex confirmed he had begun libel action against Associated Newspapers Ltd. The claim related to an article printed in The Mail on Sunday about his security arrangements.