Daily Sketch

{{Short description|British national tabloid newspaper (1909–1971)}}

{{About|the newspaper published from 1909 to 1971|the magazine published from 1893 to 1959|The Sketch}}

{{Infobox newspaper

|name = Daily Sketch

|image = Daily Sketch front page, 9 June 1913.jpg

|caption = Daily Sketch front page on 9 June 1913 mentioning the death of Emily Davison.

|type = Newspaper

|format = Tabloid

|foundation = {{start date and age|1909}} in Manchester

|founder = Edward Hulton

|ceased publication = {{end date and age| 1971|05|11}}; merged into the Daily Mail

|political = Populist, centre-right, Conservative Party

| owner = Edward Hulton (1909–1920)
Daily Mirror Newspapers (1920–1925)
Allied Newspapers/Kemsley Newspapers (1925-1952)
Associated Newspapers (1952–1971)

|sister newspapers = Sunday Graphic (1928–1960)

|editor =

}}

The Daily Sketch was a British national tabloid newspaper, founded in Manchester in 1909 by Sir Edward Hulton, 1st Baronet.

The Sketch was Conservative in its politics and populist in its tone during its existence through all its changes of ownership.

History

In 1920, Lord Rothermere's Daily Mirror Newspapers bought the Daily Sketch. In 1925 Rothermere sold it to William and Gomer Berry (later Viscount Camrose and Viscount Kemsley). In 1926 it absorbed the Daily Graphic.{{cite news|title=Amalgamation of 'Daily Graphic' and 'Daily Sketch' |work=The Times|page =4|date=16 October 1926}}

It was owned by a subsidiary of the Berrys' Allied Newspapers from 1928{{cite book|editor-link=Dennis Griffiths |editor-first=Dennis|editor-last=Griffiths |title=The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422–1992 |location=London and Basingstoke |publisher=Macmillan |date=1992|page= 187}} (renamed Kemsley Newspapers in 1937 when Camrose withdrew to concentrate his efforts on The Daily Telegraph). From this point forward, its sister newspaper was the Sunday Graphic.

In 1946, twenty years after it had taken over the Daily Graphic, the latter name was revived{{cite news|title=A Graphic Sketch |work=Daily Mirror |page =2|date= 2 July 1946}} and the Daily Sketch name disappeared for a while.

In 1952, Kemsley decided to sell the paper to Associated Newspapers, the owner of the Daily Mail,{{cite magazine|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,889586,00.html |title=The Press: Bigger Press Lord |magazine=Time |date=22 December 1952}} which promptly revived the Daily Sketch name in 1953.{{cite news|title=Our London Correspondence |work=Manchester Guardian |page=4 |date=2 January 1953}}

In 1954, an infamous cartoon, titled "Family Portrait?", was published in the paper, which mocked Billy Strachan, a black British civil rights leader, for his anti-colonial and anti-imperialist beliefs.{{Cite book |last=Horsley |first=David |title=Billy Strachan 1921–1988 RAF Officer, Communist, Civil Rights Pioneer, Legal Administrator, Internationalist and Above All Caribbean Man |publisher=Caribbean Labour Solidarity |year=2019 |location=London |pages=23 |language=en |issn=2055-7035}} The cartoon depicted him with devil horns representing the Caribbean Labour Congress. His image was posed with images of Hewlett Johnson and Paul Robeson, all of whom stood underneath a portrait of the then recently deceased Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

The paper participated in the 1965 press campaign against the screening of the BBC film The War Game.{{cite web|url=http://pwatkins.mnsi.net/warGame.htm |title=The War Game |publisher=Peter Watkins |access-date= 2012-06-23}}

The paper struggled through the 1950s and 1960s, never managing to compete successfully with the Daily Mirror, and on Tuesday, 11 May 1971, it closed and merged with the Daily Mail, which had just switched to tabloid format.{{cite news|title=Britain's oldest tabloid closes|date=11 May 1971 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/11/newsid_2860000/2860297.stm|access-date=23 August 2013|publisher=BBC News}}