12/28/21, 1:59 PM DC Thomson - Wikipedia

DC Thomson
DC Thomson is a media company based in Dundee,
Scotland. It is best known for publishing The Dundee DC Thomson & Company
Courier, The Evening Telegraph, The Sunday Post, Oor Limited
Wullie, The Broons, The Beano, The Dandy, and Commando
comics. 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 Type Private
social media site Friends Reunited.[2]
Industry Publishing
Founded 1905

Contents Founder David Couper Thomson

Headquarters Dundee, Scotland
History
Key people Christopher HW
Subsidiaries Thomson (Chairman)
Brightsolid
Findmypast David Thomson
(Director & COO)
Publications
See also Richard Hall (Director)

References Products Sunday Post, The

Evening Telegraph, My
Further reading Weekly, Jackie, Shout,
External links The Beano, The Dandy,
Commando

See also: List of D. C.

History Thomson & Co. Ltd
publications
The company began as a branch of the Thomson family Revenue £245 million (2016)[1]
business when William Thomson became the sole proprietor
Operating £30.06 million (2016)[1]
of Charles Alexander & Company, publishers of Dundee income
Courier and Daily Argus. In 1884, David Couper Thomson
took over the publishing business, and established it as D.C. Total assets £1.404 billion (2016)[1]
Thomson in 1905. The firm flourished, and took its place as Number of 2,148 (2016)[1]
the third J in the "Three Js", the traditional summary of employees
Dundee industry ('jam, jute and journalism').[3] Subsidiaries DC Thomson Media, DC
Thomson Ventures,
Thomson was notable for his conservatism, vigorously Brightsolid, Findmypast,
opposing the introduction of trade unions into his workforce, Beano Studios, Shortlist
and for refusing to employ Catholics.[4] Among historians of Media, Puzzler Media,
popular culture, the firm has "excited a good deal of interest Wild & Wolf, Wave FM,
precisely because it has always shrouded its activities in Fifth Ring
Website www.dcthomson.co.uk (h
ttps://www.dcthomson.co.
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secrecy  ... [it] has never allowed scholars access to its uk)
archives, and has
declined to participate in
exhibitions of juvenile
literature."[5]

By 2010, the company was

producing more than 100
million comics, magazines,
and newspapers every year
from offices in Dundee,
Glasgow, Manchester, and
Dundee headquarters of DC
Thomson & Co.
London. 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.[6]

Although the principal offices are now located outside Dundee city
centre at Kingsway, the Courier Building at Meadowside has been
The tower extension to DC
retained as the company headquarters. This 1902 building was
Thomson as seen from the Howff,
designed to resemble an American red stone, steel reinforced
Dundee
office block. When a 9-storey tower extension was added in 1960,
the architect T Lindsay Grey kept the same style.[7] The building
underwent extensive renovation and reopened to employees in 2017, and is able to accommodate 600
workers.[8]

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 was valued at £5.2m and was eventually
shut down completely in February 2016.[9] In 2013 there were nine job losses at This England
Publishing with the editorial team remaining but relocating in Cheltenham.

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.[1][10]

Subsidiaries

Brightsolid

Brightsolid is a data centre and cloud-based hosting company

based in Dundee that DC Thomson established in 1995 as
East Kingsway printing works and
Scotland Online. It became Brightsolid in 2008, organised into
offices
two divisions: Brightsolid Online Publishing (BSOP) and

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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,[11] with
Annelies van den Belt as chief executive.[12]

Findmypast

Findmypast Limited (formerly DC Thomson Family History, until 2015) owns a variety of large
genealogy sites worldwide, including Findmypast, Genes Reunited[13] and Mocavo. The company had
contracts to digitise archives for the Imperial War Museum and the British Library, where it was
making the British Newspaper Archive searchable.[13]

Publications
D.C. Thomson publications include:

Sunday Post
The Courier
The Evening Telegraph
My Weekly
The Scots Magazine
The People's Friend
The Beano
The Dandy
Commando
Jackie
Shout
Bunty

See also
British comics
Ellis Watson

References
1. "D.C. Thomson & Co Ltd" (https://www.duedil.com/company/SC005830/d-c-thomson-and-compan
y-limited/financials). Retrieved 28 October 2016.
2. "brightsolid acquires Friends Reunited" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110708093806/http://www.
brightsolid.com/news/top-news/brightsolid-acquires-friends-reunited). Brightsolid.com. Archived
from the original (http://www.brightsolid.com/news/top-news/brightsolid-acquires-friends-reunited)
on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
3. "Victorian Dundee: Jute, Jam & Journalism" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/victorian/
trails_victorian_dundee.shtml). Scottish History. BBC. Retrieved 2 October 2007.
4. "Gazetteer for Scotland: David Couper Thomson" (http://www.scottish-places.info/people/famousfi
rst437.html).

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5. MacKenzie, John M. (1984). Propaganda and Empire: the manipulation of British public opinion,
1880–1960. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press. p. 219. ISBN 0719018692.
6. "Beano publisher DC Thomson to cut 350 jobs" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10278700). BBC
News. 9 June 2010. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
7. "Dundee, 22 Meadowside, Dc Thomson And Co, Courier Building" (https://canmore.org.uk/site/18
5705/dundee-22-meadowside-dc-thomson-and-co-courier-building). Canmore. Retrieved
19 September 2020.
8. Thomson, David (9 May 2017). "Photos and video: The Courier goes back home to Meadowside
in Dundee" (https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/local/dundee/422247/photos-video-courier-goes
-back-home-meadowside-dundee-articleisfree/). The Courier. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
9. "DC Thomson's Friends Reunited continues fall in value" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland
-scotland-business-16210645). BBC News. 11 December 2011. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
10. "Publisher DC Thomson posts 20% rise in profits" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotla
nd-business-35251734). BBC News. 7 January 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
11. "The Future for Family History is Digital" (http://www.dcthomsonfamilyhistory.com/2013/the-future-
for-family-history-is-digital/). DC Thomson Family History. 1 October 2013. Retrieved 13 August
2014.
12. "Digital media executive Annelies van den Belt joins in brightsolid reorganisation" (http://www.thec
ourier.co.uk/business/news/digital-media-executive-annelies-van-den-belt-joins-in-brightsolid-reor
ganisation-1.125467). The Courier. 30 August 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
13. "Shake-up at online firm brightsolid" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-2
3893114). BBC News. 30 August 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2014.

Further reading
Joseph McAleer, Popular Reading and Publishing in Britain: 1914–1950, Oxford University Press,
1992. Includes a chapter on D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.

External links
Official website (https://www.dcthomson.co.uk)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=DC_Thomson&oldid=1038330102"

This page was last edited on 11 August 2021, at 22:08 (UTC).

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