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Richard Desmond
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Image:Richard_desmond_private_eye.jpg thumb|200px|right|[[Private Eye cover depicting Desmond following his purchase of the
Daily Express newspaper]]
'''Richard Clive Desmond''' (born
December 8,
1951) is a
United Kingdom British publisher, current owner of Express Newspapers and founder of
Northern and Shell plc. Express Newspapers publishes the ''
Daily Express'', ''
Sunday Express'', ''Star on Sunday'' and ''
Daily Star''. Northern and Shell was notorious for publishing a large number of
pornography pornographic titles, such as ''Big Ones'' and ''
Asian Babes'', prior to their sale to
Remnant Media in
2004. He is also the owner of the most popular pornographic television channels in the UK, the
Television X Fantasy Channel and
Red Hot TV.
From a Jewish background, Desmond grew up in north
London and left school at 14. His first job was for Thomson Newspapers, working in classified advertisements. He moved on to another company and by the age of 21 owned two record shops. He acquired an interest in publishing and in 1974 published a magazine called ''International Musician''.
In
1982 he published a British version of the American pornographic magazine ''Penthouse''. But his biggest publishing deal was the launch of celebrity magazine ''OK!'' in
1993.
Desmond attracted controversy over his £100,000 donation to the
The Labour Party (UK) Labour Party. Several prominent Labour members, including
Clare Short, broke ranks to question whether the party should be accepting money from a publisher of pornographic magazines.
After buying Express Newspapers in 2000 for £125m, Desmond became embroiled in a bitter feud with
Harold Jonathan Esmond Vere Harmsworth, 4th Viscount Rothermere Viscount Rothermere, publisher of the ''Daily Express'' rival, the ''
Daily Mail''. The ''Daily Mail'' ran several articles describing Desmond as a pornographer and christening him "Dirty Desmond".
In April 2004, the ''Daily Express'' shifted its support from Labour to the Conservatives. On the same day Desmond caused a scandal by accusing the ''
Daily Telegraph'', which was then considering accepting a takeover offer by the
Germany German Axel Springer group, of giving in to
Nazism Nazis. Desmond allegedly harangued the ''Daily Telegraph'''s chief executive and associates in faux German at a business meeting and imitated
Adolf Hitler, before erupting in a tirade of four-letter words.
[{{cite news | url=http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1200881,00.html | title=Desmond taunts Telegraph in "Nazi" tirade | publisher=Guardian Newspapers | work=MediaGuardian | date=April 22, 2004 | author=Chris Tryhorn, Lisa O'Carroll and Owen Gibson}}]
Desmond currently lives in
North London.
References
Category:1951 births Desmond, Richard
Category:Living people Desmond, Richard
Category:Jewish-British people Desmond, Richard
Category:British business people Desmond, Richard
Category:British pornography Desmond, Richard
Category:Magazine publishers (people)
Category:Mass media owners Desmond, Richard
Category:Newspaper publishers of the 21st century (people) Desmond, Richard
Category:Pornographers Desmond, Richard
de:Richard Desmond
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