Media Lifeline: The Mail on Sunday at 25

Launching an innovative colour supplement helped cement The Mail on Sunday's future.

1982: After a shaky launch under the editor Bernard Shrimsley,
Associated Newspapers decides to go for a rescue relaunch within months.
In October, The Daily Mail's legendary editor David English, takes

charge. He brings in Stewart Steven as the editor and oversees the

addition of a colour supplement. This innovative magazine, called You,
proves the most important element in a popular new package.

1994: The Mail on Sunday has been one of the newspaper industry's
success stories of the 80s, but by the early 90s, it was starting to
look tired. In 1993, a new "review" style supplement called Night & Day
is introduced, and You begins its evolution into a supplement targeted
more specifically at women. In 1994, Financial Mail is also
introduced.

1998: Peter Wright (still the incumbent in 2007) becomes the paper's
fourth editor, succeeding Jonathan Holborow, who had replaced Steven in
1992. Holborow's innovations, such as the new supplements, had been a
success, and circulation had been comfortably maintained above two
million; but the main paper was now perceived (not least by the new
Associated editor-in-chief, Paul Dacre) as rather dull.

2003: Now there's upheaval on the management side as the managing
director, Mike Ironside, leaves. He is replaced by Stephen Miron - a
Mail on Sunday stalwart, who had worked for the paper for ten years
before joining The Independent as the commercial director.

2007: As the paper prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary, it
launches a new marketing initiative, which focuses on the paper's
first-ever cinema ad. The film features an epic battle of the sexes to
promote its main supplements, You and Live, the title that had replaced
Night & Day in 2005.

Fast forward... 2032: Miron, who, owing to medical advances, is still
managing The Mail's 24/7 news and entertainment platforms, now digital,
asks to be released from his contract. It's left to Guy Zitter (living
on monkey glands and red wine), to sort the 50th bash.