The Daily Telegraph began in 1855 with a personal grievance behind it and a precarious business model. Its founder, Arthur B. Sleigh, could not pay the printer, Joseph Moses Levy, who took over the newspaper and set it on a course towards a wider readership. Across the following generations, the Telegraph became a national daily, built an identity associated with conservative politics, and moved early into web publishing. Its history is not simply one of continuity: ownership, technology and the practical boundaries of journalism have all changed around it.

A paper founded on a grievance

The Daily Telegraph and Courier was founded by Colonel Arthur B. Sleigh in June 1855. Its first issue appeared in London on 29 June, priced at twopence and running to four pages. The supplied historical account says Sleigh established the paper to air a personal grievance against Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, over alleged misconduct in the Crimean War. The first edition nevertheless set out a broader ambition, promising independent action and reporting on events in a way that would make their significance clear to readers.

The early venture did not succeed. Sleigh was unable to pay Levy’s printing bill, and Levy, owner of The Sunday Times, took control. He wanted to produce a cheaper paper than London competitors such as the Daily News and The Morning Post, and to reach a larger market. Levy appointed his son, Edward Levy-Lawson, later Lord Burnham, and Thornton Leigh Hunt to edit it. Burnham relaunched the paper as The Daily Telegraph. Hunt’s editorial principles included explaining developments in science and other fields in terms readers could understand and connect with everyday life.

The motto “Was, is, and will be” became part of the paper’s identity and appeared in its emblem from 1858 for more than a century. In its early decades, its politics were not yet fixed in the form most associated with it today: the paper supported Whig and moderate liberal ideas before the late 1870s. Its subsequent conservative alignment developed over time rather than being an unchanging feature from the first issue.

Ownership, war and a growing newspaper

The Levy-Lawson family remained involved in the paper until 1928, when Harry Lawson Webster Levy-Lawson, the second Baron Burnham, sold it to William Berry, Lord Camrose, in partnership with Gomer Berry, Lord Kemsley, and Edward Iliffe. In 1937, the Telegraph absorbed The Morning Post, a paper with a traditionally conservative position. The title was briefly styled The Daily Telegraph and Morning Post before reverting to The Daily Telegraph.

War shaped both the paper’s reporting and its operations. In 1939, correspondent Clare Hollingworth reported that Germany was preparing to invade Poland. During the Second World War, the newspaper also helped recruit code-breakers for Bletchley Park through a crossword competition. Successful competitors were approached about undertaking work for the war effort; the winner, F. H. W. Hawes of Dagenham, completed the puzzle in under eight minutes.

From November 1940, with Fleet Street exposed to bombing, the Telegraph began printing in Manchester. Its Manchester operation sometimes produced the entire run when the London offices were threatened. The story of the newspaper in this period therefore includes not just the content it published but the work required to keep it appearing during wartime disruption.

The Sunday Telegraph, a sister paper, was launched in 1960, and began publication in 1961. In 1986, Canadian businessman Conrad Black gained control of the Telegraph Group. The Barclay brothers acquired the group in 2004 after a contested period involving Black and Hollinger International. The paper’s ownership history continued to be unsettled: in 2023, Lloyds Banking Group moved to sell the titles after taking control of the companies that owned them. A proposed RedBird IMI takeover was abandoned in November 2025. Axel Springer announced an acquisition in March 2026, and the supplied Wikipedia account says it was completed on 30 June that year.

Political character and public accountability

The Telegraph is now commonly described as politically conservative and has endorsed the Conservative Party at UK general elections since 1945. Its political outlook has not meant that its history can be reduced to a single party relationship: the paper supported the Better Together campaign in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and endorsed leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum. Its newsroom has also been the setting for reporting that affected political careers and public debate.

In May 2009, the paper obtained a full copy of MPs’ expenses claims and began publishing selected details. The Telegraph argued that the official information due to be released would leave out important information about the redesignation of second homes. The disclosures contributed to a major political scandal and a number of high-profile resignations from both the Labour government and the Conservative opposition. The investigation earned the paper the 2009 British Newspaper of the Year award, and its expenses reporting was named Scoop of the Year.

Other prominent investigations have included the 2016 undercover reporting on England football manager Sam Allardyce. Reporters posing as businessmen filmed him offering advice on getting around football association rules concerning third-party ownership of players and discussing a proposed deal. Allardyce left his post by mutual consent. Such reporting shows the paper’s use of undercover methods as well as its capacity to publish material with immediate consequences; it also makes the question of how such methods are justified part of its journalistic history.

The paper’s record includes criticism as well as scoops. In 2015, chief political commentator Peter Oborne resigned, arguing that commercial interests had influenced the paper’s coverage of HSBC. The Telegraph rejected his account as inaccurate and unfounded; the dispute drew attention to the relationship between editorial work and advertising. In other cases, the paper has issued corrections or apologies after inaccurate reporting. These episodes matter to a history of journalism because public accountability involves both exposing failures elsewhere and being answerable for errors at home.

From electronic telegraph to a digital newsroom

The newspaper’s website began as Electronic Telegraph, launched at midday on 15 November 1994. At a time when home internet access in Britain was rare, it was an early daily web-based newspaper. Initially, it carried selected stories from the print edition; the site gradually expanded to include nearly all of the newspaper’s content and original online material. Its development reflects a change not only in distribution but in the daily work of publishing: news that had once been tied to the print cycle could be updated and presented online.

The organisation continued to adjust its newsroom and products. In 2005, the print edition relaunched with a tabloid sports section and a separate business section. A regular podcast service followed that year. In 2006, the company was renamed Telegraph Media Group as it repositioned itself as a multimedia operation. A major website redesign in 2008 gave more space to audio, video and journalist blogs. The site introduced subscription requirements for international readers in 2012 and rolled out a pay meter in the UK in 2013.

These changes formed part of a broader shift from a newspaper with an online outlet to a publisher producing print and digital material through an integrated operation. The Telegraph’s early web presence is one notable milestone, but its digital history also involves new formats, changing access rules and the continuing task of supporting journalism as readers move between print and screens.

Why The Daily Telegraph deserves a place in British Legacy

The Daily Telegraph belongs in a record of British media history because its story connects a London newspaper founded in 1855 with successive changes in the country’s politics, publishing and technology. Its first issue emerged from Sleigh’s grievance and a failed attempt to establish a viable business; Levy’s takeover and decision to pursue a cheaper paper helped create a national daily. Later, Clare Hollingworth’s 1939 reporting and the newspaper’s wartime role in recruiting code-breakers show how a newsroom could contribute both to public knowledge and to the wider work of the country during conflict.

The paper’s 2009 MPs’ expenses investigation offers another specific reason for its historical significance. By publishing claims that would otherwise have remained difficult for the public to examine, the Telegraph helped bring parliamentary spending into national debate and contributed to resignations across party lines. That is a concrete example of journalism serving public accountability, even as later disputes about accuracy and the influence of commercial interests demonstrate why such work must itself be scrutinised.

Its digital development adds a further dimension. Electronic Telegraph’s 1994 launch placed the paper among early daily web publishers, and its later move towards podcasts, multimedia and subscription publishing records the industry’s effort to adapt distribution and revenue to online reading. These are not generic claims about national character: they are documented episodes in a British newspaper’s working history. Taken together, the Telegraph’s longevity, political reporting, wartime experience, investigative work and digital experiments make it a useful case study in how British journalism has changed—and in the continuing public responsibilities attached to it.

Sources

The Daily Telegraph — revision 1378136448 · The Daily Telegraph

Adapted in part from The Daily Telegraph by Wikipedia contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Text has been edited and combined with the existing article; this adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.