''The European'', billed as "Europe's first national newspaper", was a British weekly

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...

founded by

Robert Maxwell Ian Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, Parliament of the United Kingdom, member of parliament (MP), suspected spy, and fraudster. Early i ...

. It was published from 11 May 1990 until December 1998.

History

Maxwell founded the paper in the fervour which immediately followed the destruction of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the gover ...

and collapse of the

Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its ...

: the name was a reflection of the feelings of pan-European unity which were brought on by the historic changes, an ideal which Maxwell wholeheartedly supported. According to ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' magazine, Maxwell originally envisaged a daily with a circulation of 650,000, but by the launch date plans had been cut down to a more realistic weekly with a circulation of 225,000. In the event, the circulation peaked at 180,000, over half of which was British. Following Maxwell's death, the Barclay brothers bought the newspaper in 1992, investing an estimated $110 million and in 1996 transforming it into a high-end

tabloid Tabloid may refer to: * Tabloid journalism, a type of journalism * Tabloid (newspaper format), a newspaper with compact page size ** Chinese tabloid * Tabloid (paper size), a North American paper size * Sopwith Tabloid The Sopwith Tabloid an ...

format oriented at the business community edited by

Andrew Neil Andrew Ferguson Neil (born 21 May 1949) is a Scottish former journalist and broadcaster who is chairman of ''The Spectator'' and presenter of '' The Andrew Neil Show'' on Channel 4. He was editor of ''The Sunday Times'' from 1983 to 1994. He f ...

. In 1996, ''The European'' had a staff of 70 in London, 3 in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, 1 in Paris, 1 in Berlin, 1 in Moscow, as well as a network of 100 freelance writers throughout Europe. Among the newspaper's innovations was a weekly short fiction contribution from published and previously unpublished writers. ''

The New European ''The New European'' is a British pan-European weekly political and cultural newspaper and website. Launched in July 2016 as a response to the United Kingdom's 2016 EU referendum, its readership is aimed at those who voted to remain within t ...

'' (a pro-EU newspaper founded in 2016 following the

Brexit referendum The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...

) is partially inspired by ''The European'''s experience.

Editors

*1990: Ian Watson *1991: John Bryant *1992: Charles Garside *1993: Herbert Pearson *1994: Charles Garside *1996:

*1998:

Gerry Malone Peter Gerald "Gerry" Malone (born 21 July 1950) is a British Conservative Party politician who served as a member of Parliament (MP) from 1983 to 1987 and again from 1992 to 1997. Early life Born in Glasgow, Malone was educated at St Aloysius ...

Contributors (partial list)

* Nigel Cox * Jean Cavé * Bronwyn Cosgrave * Jean Schalit *

Roger Faligot Roger Faligot is a French journalist, who started working in Ireland in 1973 before working as freelance investigative journalist for British, Parisian or foreign newspapers and magazines (Ireland, England, Japan). Considered one of the best Fre ...

* Peter Millar *

Jane Mulvagh Jane Mulvagh is an Irish-born journalist and social historian, specialising in British history. She is best known for her history of Madresfield Court, the English country house upon which Evelyn Waugh based his novel ''Brideshead Revisited''. ...

* Stephanie Theobald *

Peter Ustinov Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (born Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinov ; 16 April 192128 March 2004) was a British actor, filmmaker and writer. An internationally known raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits ...

* Mark Porter *

Walter Ellis Walter Ellis (born September 7, 1948) is a Northern Ireland-born, United States-based writer. He spends his summers in France. Ellis is the author of ''The Beginning of the End: The Crippling Disadvantage of a Happy Irish Childhood'', the story ...

* Anne-Elisabeth Moutet * Tim Walker, later to work on ''

'' * Teodor Troev, later a Financial Times contributor

History

Editors

Contributors (partial list)

References

Further reading

See also