DC Thomson

D. C. Thomson & Company, Limited

Type	Private
Industry	Publishing
Founded	1905 (1905)
Founder	David Coupar Thomson
Headquarters	2 Albert Square, Dundee, DD1 9QJ, Scotland
Key people	Andrew Thomson (chairman)
Products	Sunday Post, The Evening Telegraph My Weekly, Jackie, Shout The Beano, The Dandy, Commando See also: list of DC Thomson Publications
Revenue	£252m (2012)
Operating income	£23.7m (2012)
Number of employees	1,900 (2013)
Subsidiaries	Brightsolid Findmypast My Family Club Parragon Puzzler Media
Website	www.dcthomson.co.uk

DC Thomson is a British publishing and television production company best known for producing The Dundee Courier, The Sunday Post, Oor Wullie, The Broons, The Beano, The Dandy, and Commando comics. It also owns Parragon and the Aberdeen Journals Group which publishes the Press and Journal. It was a significant shareholder in the former ITV company Southern Television. Through its subsidiary DC Thomson Family History the company owns several websites including Friends Reunited^[1] and Findmypast. Based in Dundee, Scotland, the company also owns children books publisher Parragon.

History

Dundee Headquarters of DC Thomson & Co.

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 Coupar 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 ('jam, jute and journalism').^[2] Thomson was notable for his conservatism, vigorously opposing the introduction of trade unions into his workforce, and for refusing to employ Catholics.^[3]

The company produces more than 200 million comics, magazines, and newspapers every year from offices in Dundee, Glasgow, Manchester, and 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.

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 tower extension was added in 1960, the architect T Lindsay Grey kept the same style.

In 2009 DC Thomson acquired the magazine company This England Publishing, which included This England magazine and Evergreen quarterly magazine. There were nine job losses in 2013 with the editorial team remaining but relocating in Cheltenham. In the same year DC Thomson acquired the Friends Reunited website from ITV for £25.6m, but by 2011was valued at £5.2m.^[4]

As of December 2013, the company employed around 1,900 workers.^[5]

Publications

For a complete list, see List of D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd publications.

D.C. Thomson publications include:

Subsidiaries

Brightsolid

Brightsolid is a data centre and cloud-based hosting company based in Dundee. It was established in 1995 as Scotland Online and in 2008 became Brightsolid, organised into two companies: Brightsolid Online Publishing (BSOP) and Brightsolid Online Technology (BSOT). Brightsolid online publishing (BSOP) was subsequently renamed DC Thomson Family History in October 2013.^[6]

Findmypast

The Findmypast group (formerly DC Thomson Family History) owns a variety of large genealogy sites worldwide, including Findmypast, Genes Reunited, Mocavo and Friends Reunited.^[7] Following the split of Brightsolid in 2013, Annelies van den Belt was appointed chief executive.^[8]

The company has contracts to digitise archives for the Imperial War Museum and the British Library, where it is making the British Newspaper Archive searchable.

References

↑ "brightsolid acquires Friends Reunited". Brightsolid.com. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
↑ "Victorian Dundee: Jute, Jam & Journalism". Scottish History. BBC. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
↑ "Gazetteer for Scotland: David Couper Thomson".
↑ "DC Thomson's Friends Reunited continues fall in value". BBC News. 11 December 2011. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
↑ "Publisher DC Thomson reports fall in profits". BBC News. 31 December 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
↑ "The Future for Family History is Digital". DC Thomson Family History. 1 October 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
↑ "Shake-up at online firm brightsolid". BBC News. 30 August 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
↑ "Digital media executive Annelies van den Belt joins in brightsolid reorganisation". The Courier. 30 August 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2014.

External links

Official website

DC Thomson

Newspapers	The Courier Evening Telegraph The Sunday Post Aberdeen Journals The Press and Journal Evening Express Aberdeen Citizen

Magazines	Animals and You The Beano BeanoMAX Classics from the Comics Commando Fun Size Comics My Weekly The Official Jacqueline Wilson Mag The People's Friend The Scots Magazine Shout This England The Weekly News WWE Kids

Books	Parragon Peter Haddock

Other	Brightsolid British Newspaper Archive Findmypast Friends Reunited Genes Reunited Puzzler

DC Thomson comics

Currently Running Comics	The Beano BeanoMAX Commando

Adventure Comics	Adventure Bullet Buddy Champ Commando The Crunch The Hornet The Hotspur The Rover The Skipper Spike Starblazer The Vanguard The Victor Warlord The Wizard

Girls Comics	Bunty Judy Mandy Nikki

Humour Comics	The Beano BeanoMAX The Beezer Buzz Classics from the Comics Cracker The Dandy Fun Size Comics Hoot The Magic Comic Nutty Plug Sparky The Topper

Pre-School Comics	Bimbo The Magic Comic Twinkle

Notable Strips	Alf Tupper Baby Crockett Bananaman The Bash Street Kids Beryl the Peril Black Bob Biffo the Bear The Broons Calamity James Cuddles and Dimples Dennis the Menace Desperate Dan Ginger Gnasher Ivy the Terrible Keyhole Kate Korky the Cat Little Plum Lord Snooty Matt Braddock Minnie the Minx The Numskulls Pansy Potter Roger the Dodger Oor Wullie Willy Nilly Wilson the Wonder Athlete Wolf of Kabul

Comic annuals	The Beano Annual The Beezer Book The Bimbo Book The Dandy Annual The Hotspur Book for Boys The Sparky Book The Topper Book The Victor Book for Boys Warlord Book for Boys

Character annuals	Bananaman Annual The Bash Street Kids Annual Beryl the Peril Annual Black Bob Book The Broons Annual Dennis the Menace Annual The Desperate Dan Book Oor Wullie Annual

Notable Artists	Leo Baxendale Gordon Bell Nick Brennan Paddy Brennan Sid Burgon John Geering Barry Glennard Ken H. Harrison Laura Howell Malcolm Judge David Law Allan Morley David Mostyn Robert Nixon Gary Northfield Nigel Parkinson Tom Paterson Jim Petrie Ken Reid Bill Ritchie David Parkins David Sutherland Kev F. Sutherland Dudley D. Watkins Wilbur Dawbarn Karl Dixon The Etherington Brothers Andy Fanton Nigel Auchterlounie Lew Stringer Alexander Matthews Jon Rushby Trevor Metcalfe Barrie Appleby Charles Grigg Vic Neill Jamie Smart

See Also	Beanotown Racing List of D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd publications List of Fleetway and IPC Comics publications List of Beano comic strips List of Dandy comic strips List of Beezer comic strips List of Beezer and Topper comic strips

The Beano

Current strips	Ball Boy Bananaman The Bash Street Kids Beaginnings Biffo the Bear Billy Whizz Calamity James Dennis the Menace Gnipper Les Pretend Little Plum Lord Snooty Minnie the Minx Number 13 Beano Street The Numskulls Pansy Potter Pup Parade Rasher Roger the Dodger Tom, Dick and Sally Tricky Dicky

Notable former strips	Baby Face Finlayson The Bash Street Kids - Singled Out Beaginnings The Belles of St. Lemons Big Eggo Billy the Cat Colin the Vet Colonel Crackpot's Circus Crazy for Daisy Danny's Nanny Derek the Sheep Fatty Fudge Freddie Fear Fred's Bed General Jumbo Gnasher's Bit(e) Gnasher's Tale Gnash Gnews Gordon Bennett Grandpa Hairy Dan Helpful Henry The Germs Ivy the Terrible Jack Flash Jimmy and his Magic Patch Joe Jitsu Joe King Johnny Bean from Happy Bunny Green Jonah Lord Snooty the Third The Magic Lollipops Maxy's Taxi The McTickles Meebo and Zuky Morgyn the Mighty The Nibblers Nicky Nutjob Olaff the Madlander Ping the Elastic Man Pirates of the Caribeano Ratz Robbie Rebel Richard the Lion Simply Smiffy* Smudge Splodge Super School The Three Bears Tim Traveller Tin-Can Tommy Winston Wee Ben Nevis Wee Peem The Yeti with Betty Zap Zodiac

Supporting characters	Walter the Softy Foo Foo

See also	The Beano timeline Bash Street School Beanotown The Beano Annual Beano comic libraries BeanoMAX The Beano Summer Special List of Beano comic strips List of Beano comic strips by annual Beanotown Racing

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