DC Thomson is a media company based in

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

, Scotland. Founded by David Couper Thomson in 1905, it is best known for publishing '' The Courier'', '' The Evening Telegraph'' and '' The Sunday Post'' newspapers, and the comics ''

Oor Wullie ''Oor Wullie'' () is a Scottish comic strip published in the D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd, D.C. Thomson newspaper ''The Sunday Post''. It features a character called Wullie; Wullie is a Scots language, Scots nickname for boys named William, equival ...

'', '' The Broons'', ''

The Beano ''The Beano'' (formerly ''The Beano Comic'') is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it published its 4000th issue in August 2019. Popular and ...

'', '' The Dandy'' and ''

Commando A commando is a combatant, or operative of an elite light infantry or special operations force, specially trained for carrying out raids and operating in small teams behind enemy lines. Originally, "a commando" was a type of combat unit, as oppo ...

''. It also owns the Aberdeen Journals Group which publishes the '' Press and Journal''. The company owns several websites, including Findmypast, and owned the now defunct social media site Friends Reunited.

History

The company began as a branch of the Thomson family business when William Thomson became the sole proprietor of Charles Alexander & Company, publishers of ''Dundee Courier and Daily Argus''. In 1884, David Couper Thomson took over the publishing business, and established it as D.C. Thomson in 1905. The firm flourished, and took its place as the third J in the "Three Js", the traditional summary of Dundee industry ("

jute Jute ( ) is a long, rough, shiny bast fibre that can be Spinning (textiles), spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus ''Corchorus'', of the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is ...

, jam and

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

"). Thomson was notable for his

conservatism Conservatism is a Philosophy of culture, cultural, Social philosophy, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, Convention (norm), customs, and Value (ethics and social science ...

, vigorously opposing the introduction of

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

s into his workforce, and for refusing to employ

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

s. Among historians of popular culture, the firm has "excited a good deal of interest precisely because it has always shrouded its activities in secrecy ... thas never allowed scholars access to its archives, and has declined to participate in exhibitions of juvenile literature." By 2010, the company was producing more than 100 million

comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

s, and

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

s every year from offices in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. In June 2010, 350 jobs at DC Thomson were made redundant with the closure of the West Ward Printworks in Dundee, along with a section of the Kingsway Print Plant. Although the principal offices are now located outside Dundee city centre at Kingsway, the Courier Building at Meadowside has been retained as the company headquarters. This 1902 building was designed to resemble an American red stone, steel reinforced office block. When a nine-storey tower extension was added in 1960, the architect T. Lindsay Gray kept the same style. The building underwent extensive renovation and reopened to employees in 2017, and is able to accommodate 600 workers. In 2009 DC Thomson acquired the magazine company This England Publishing, which included '' This England'' magazine and ''Evergreen'' quarterly magazine. In the same year DC Thomson acquired the Friends Reunited website from ITV for £25.6m, but by 2011 it was valued at £5.2m and was eventually shut down completely in February 2016. In 2013, DC Thomson laid off 46 production staff at its Lang Stracht base in Aberdeen after printing was moved to Dundee. As of 2016, the company posted an increase in pre-tax profits and revenue whilst employing over 2,000 workers. Despite the falling circulation of newspapers and magazines, DC Thomson attributed the rising profits to company-wide cuts to operating costs and good figures in digital revenues and events. The company went on to say that they would continue to branch out their brand into new areas to support the traditional newspaper and magazine divisions. In February 2023, it was announced that several "well-loved" titles would be closed and employees would be made redundant as part of a wider restructuring. On 9 February 2023, it was announced that ''Shout'', ''Living'', ''Platinum Magazine'', ''Evergreen'', ''Animals & You'' and ''Animal Planet'' would be closed with 300 employees being made redundant. In January 2024, the company announced plans to eliminate 55 jobs and shutter four titles: ''This England'', ''My Weekly Pocket Novels'', ''110% Gaming'' and ''Unicorn Universe''.

Subsidiaries

Current

Brightsolid

Brightsolid is a data centre and cloud-based hosting company based in

that DC Thomson established in 1995 as Scotland Online. It became Brightsolid in 2008, organised into two divisions: Brightsolid Online Publishing (BSOP) and Brightsolid Online Technology (BSOT). The two divisions were split into separate businesses in October 2013, and Brightsolid Online Publishing was renamed DC Thomson Family History, with Annelies van den Belt as chief executive.

Findmypast

Findmypast Limited (formerly DC Thomson Family History, until 2015) owns a variety of large

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

sites worldwide, including Findmypast, Genes Reunited and Mocavo. The company had contracts to digitise archives for the

Imperial War Museum The Imperial War Museum (IWM), currently branded "Imperial War Museums", is a British national museum. It is headquartered in London, with five branches in England. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, it was intended to record the civ ...

and the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

, where it was making the

British Newspaper Archive The British Newspaper Archive website provides access to searchable digitized archives of British and Irish newspapers. It was launched in November 2011. History The British Library's Newspapers section was based in Colindale in north London ...

searchable.

Former

DC Thomson once owned

Bridlington Bridlington (previously known as Burlington) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is on the Holderness part (Flamborough Head to the Humber estuary) of the Yorkshire Coast by the North Sea. The town is ...

-based children's publisher Peter Haddock until they closed it in late 2013.

Publications

D.C. Thomson publications include: *'' Sunday Post'' *'' The Courier'' *'' The Evening Telegraph'' *'' My Weekly'' *''

The Scots Magazine ''The Scots Magazine'' is a magazine containing articles on subjects of Scottish interest. It claims to be the oldest magazine in the world still in publication, although there have been several gaps in its publication history. It has reported on ...

'' *'' The People's Friend'' *''

'' *'' The Dandy'' *''

'' *'' Jackie'' *'' Shout'' *'' Bunty''

Gallery

File:DC Thomson East Kingsway offices and printing works.jpg, DC Thomson printing offices on the Kingsway File:The tower extension to DC Thomson as seen from The Howff, Dundee.jpg, DC Thomson's tower extension from The Howff DC Thomson Dundee Meadowside north east face (post refurb) (perspective fix).jpg, Meadowside offices from another angle

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:D. C. Thomson and Co. 1905 establishments in Scotland Publishing companies established in 1905 Companies based in Dundee Comic book publishing companies of Scotland Magazine publishing companies of Scotland Mass media companies of Scotland Newspaper companies of Scotland Book publishing companies of Scotland Mass media in Dundee