''Dogs Today''

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 ...

was launched in 1990 by Burlington Publishing Company Ltd, part of

Associated Newspapers DMG Media (stylised in lowercase) is an intermediate holding company for Associated Newspapers, Northcliffe Media, Harmsworth Printing, Harmsworth Media and other subsidiaries of Daily Mail and General Trust. It is based at 9 Derry Street in ...

. It was the brainchild of ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

'' newspaper proprietor the late

Viscount Rothermere Viscount Rothermere, of Hemsted in the county of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1919 for the press lord Harold Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth. He had already been created a baronet, of Horsey in t ...

History

Beverley Cuddy was appointed the launch

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

. She had previously worked on many other

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...

titles and had been the Kennel Club's Information Officer, but this was her first editorship. She was also the

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

of the magazine. Few at the ''Daily Mail'' shared Rothermere's vision and the launch was erratically supported internally. After some very expensive TV

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

the decision was taken to close the title and make all the staff redundant. Cuddy believed in the title's potential and organised a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

. Lord Rothermere was amused and quite touched by this as Cuddy had no publishing experience. He sold the title to her for £1 and came in as a minor

investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future Return on capital, return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital the investor usually purchases some species of pr ...

. He later confided that he thought she was highly unlikely to succeed where the might of Associated Newspaper's had failed. A year later, however, at the PPA awards, ''Dogs Todays new publisher Pet Subjects Limited took the Small Publisher of the Year Award. Rothermere was delighted and sent over his

chauffeur A chauffeur () is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or a limousine. Initially, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to s ...

with champagne to celebrate.

Recognition

''Dogs Today'' was short-listed for many other editing and publishing awards including the prestigious 'best dog magazine in the world award". The magazine was always a campaigning publication and it was key in the reform of the Dangerous Dogs Act and also the banning of

tail docking The tail is the elongated section at the rear end of a bilaterian animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage extending backwards from the midline of the torso. In vertebrate animals that evolved to lose their ta ...

- the magazine was cited by the Government committee that reviewed the subject. The magazine is also active in campaigning for the improvement of the health of

pedigree Breeding * Pedigree chart, a document to record ancestry, used by genealogists in study of human family lines, and in selective breeding of other animals ** Pedigree, a human genealogy (ancestry chart) ** Pedigree (animal), a breed registry *** ...

dogs and has compiled a comprehensive listing of all the

hereditary Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic inform ...

health tests that should be performed for each breed before a litter is bred. In 2020 Dogs Today was acquired by Brandshare Ltd.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official Website
Animal and pet magazines Dogs in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1990 Hobby magazines published in the United Kingdom Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom 1990 establishments in the United Kingdom Mass media in Surrey