Today (UK newspaper)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Tabloid
Owner	Eddy Shah/Lonrho/News International
Founded	4 March 1986
Ceased publication	16 November 1995
Headquarters	Wapping, London
Website: none

Today was a national newspaper in the United Kingdom. It was launched on Tuesday, 4 March 1986 and was a middle-market tabloid that pioneered the use of computer photosetting and full-colour offset printing at a time when British national newspapers were still using Linotype machines and letterpress. The colour was initially crude, being produced on equipment which had no facility for colour proofing, so the first view of the colour was on the finished product. However, it can be seen as the trigger which forced the eventual conversion of all UK national newspapers to electronic production and colour printing.

Launched by regional newspaper entrepreneur Eddy Shah, it was bought by Tiny Rowland's Lonrho within four months. Shah would launch the short-lived, unsuccessful national tabloid The Post in 1988.

For some years Alastair Campbell was its news editor.

Today was subsequently sold to Rupert Murdoch's News International in 1987. In 1995, the paper's owners decided to cease production. This was after years of decline and shortly after it became infamous for its front page on the Oklahoma City bombing: Today printed a photograph of a fireman carrying out the body of a young girl accompanied by the block headline "IN THE NAME OF ALLAH", which proved highly embarrassing when it soon became clear the bombing had nothing to do with Muslim militants but rather with American extremists.

Its offices are now used by one of News International's other papers, The Sun. Today ceased publishing on Thursday, 16 November 1995, making it the first long-running national newspaper title to fail since the Daily Sketch in 1971.

Richard Stott was the editor when Today closed. He now writes for the Sunday Mirror - part of the Trinity Mirror group.