Northern & Shell (holding company name Northern and Shell Network Ltd) is a British

publishing Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

group, founded in December 1974 and owned since then by

Richard Desmond Richard Clive Desmond (born 8 December 1951) is a British publisher, businessman and former pornographer. According to the 2021 ''Sunday Times Rich List'', Desmond was the 107th richest person in the United Kingdom. He is the founder of North ...

. Formerly a publisher of pornographic magazines including ''

Penthouse Penthouse most often refers to: *Penthouse apartment, a special apartment on the top floor of a building *Penthouse (magazine), ''Penthouse'' (magazine), a British-founded men's magazine *Mechanical penthouse, a floor, typically located directly u ...

'' and ''

Asian Babes ''Asian Babes'' was a British softcore pornographic magazine which featured photographs of women of South Asian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai origin. The magazine was launched in March 1992 and initially used only Indian and Pakistani mode ...

'', it published the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

'', ''

Sunday Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

'', '' Daily Star'' and ''

Daily Star Sunday The ''Daily Star Sunday'' is a weekly tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom. It was launched as a sister title to the ''Daily Star (United Kingdom), Daily Star'' on 15 September 2002. The ''Daily Star Sunday'' is published by Expres ...

'', and the magazines ''

OK! ''OK!'' is a British weekly magazine that primarily specialises in royal and celebrity news. Originally launched as a monthly magazine, its first issue was published in April 1997. In September 2004, ''OK''! launched in Australia as a monthly ...

'', ''

New! ''New!'' is a British weekly magazine, specialising in celebrity news and is published by Reach plc, which also oversees ''OK!'' magazine, the ''Daily Mirror'', ''Daily Express'' and ''Daily Star (United Kingdom), Daily Star''. Profile ''New! ...

'' and ''Star'' until these were sold to Trinity Mirror in February 2018. Northern & Shell also owned three entertainment television channels: Channel 5, 5* and

5USA 5USA is a British free-to-air television channel. It is owned by Paramount Networks UK & Australia and is a sister channel of Channel 5, 5Action, 5Star and 5Select. It was launched on 16 October 2006 as Five US and was the second digital terr ...

until 2015. It owned

Portland TV Portland TV was a British adult television company that was owned by Neon X that offered subscription and pay-per-view services to UK audiences on the Sky UK, Virgin TV and Freeview platforms. History The company was established in London Docklan ...

, which operates pornographic TV channels including

Television X Television X (TVX) is a series of adult pay-per-view television channels in the United Kingdom owned by MG Global Entertainment (Europe) Limited. Until 2020, it was owned by Portland TV which was a subsidiary of Richard Desmond's publishing com ...

and

Red Hot TV Red Hot TV can refer to: * Red Hot TV (Canada) * Red Hot TV (UK) Red Hot TV was a series of British television channel that showcased pornographic content on a pay-per-view basis. The channel began broadcasting on Sky in June 2000 as one o ...

; the company sold Portland in April 2016. Northern & Shell has operated The Health Lottery in the UK since it launched in 2011.

History

Desmond founded Northern & Shell in 1974 and launched a magazine called ''

International Musician and Recording World ''International Musician and Recording World'' was a magazine published from 1975 to 1991. Originally launched in the UK, editions were created for the United States, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Foundation ''International Musician and Recording ...

''. In 1983, Northern & Shell obtained the licence to publish ''

'' in the United Kingdom which led to its publishing a range of pornographic titles, ''

'' among them. These titles were later sold in 2004. It was the first company to move to the revamped Docklands and the Princess Royal opened the offices. When the company moved to the Northern & Shell Tower, the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...

opened the offices. Northern & Shell also publishes a wide range of magazines including the celebrity weekly, ''

'', started as a monthly in 1993. In November 2000, Northern & Shell acquired Express Newspapers from

United News & Media UBM plc was a British business-to-business (B2B) events organiser headquartered in London, England, before its acquisition by Informa in 2018. It had a long history as a multinational media company. Its main focus was on B2B events, but its pr ...

for £125 million, enlarging the group to include the ''Daily'' and ''Sunday Express'' titles, the ''Daily Star'' and ''Daily Star Sunday'' (which Desmond started), and the ''Irish Star'' (owned jointly with the Irish Independent group). The ''Daily'' and ''Sunday Express'' each sell around 700,000 copies per issue. Northern & Shell had borrowed £97 million (approximately US$190 million) for the Express group purchase. Northern & Shell's "portfolio" of soft-porn magazines was offered for sale in 2001 in order to provide cash to invest in the then newly acquired Express Newspapers group. Some viewed the sale as an attempt to distance the company from the pornography business, but most analysts believed it to be only a financial move as

The Fantasy Channel Television X (TVX) is a series of adult pay-per-view television channels in the United Kingdom owned by MG Global Entertainment (Europe) Limited. Until 2020, it was owned by Portland TV which was a subsidiary of Richard Desmond's publishing com ...

, Northern and Shell's adult cable channel, wasn't included in the sale. In 2004, Northern & Shell sought acquisition of additional publications — ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'' and ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', along with its sister publication ''The Sunday Telegraph''. It was unsuccessful in its bid for ''The Telegraph'', losing out to David and Frederick Barclay, who had long sought to own the paper. On 23 July 2010, Northern & Shell bought Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited, which operates Channel 5, 5* and

for €125 million (£103.5 million) from the

RTL Group RTL Group (for "Radio Television Luxembourg") is a Luxembourg-based international media conglomerate, with another corporate centre in Cologne, Germany. The company operates 68 television channels and 31 radio stations in Germany, France and ...

. On 1 May 2014, the channels were sold to

Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...

for £450 million (US$759 million). In 2013, Northern & Shell announced that its TV listing magazine ''TV Pick'' would no longer be published. In 2014, Northern & Shell invested in a series of startups under the brand Northern & Shell Ventures. This included investments in

OpenRent OpenRent is an online letting agent and property service provider, founded in 2012. It is a UK-based startup company focused on technological solutions to property rentals. It claims to be the largest letting agent in the UK based on number of prop ...

Tepilo Mashroom Ltd is an online lettings service and parent company of Tepilo.com and Emoov.co.uk. Founded in 2018, it purchased Emoov & Tepilo to compliment its online lettings platform in 2019. Group History Mashroom was founded by Stepan Dobrovo ...

and Lulu. In February 2018, Trinity Mirror purchased Northern & Shell's publishing operations (titles including the ''Daily Express'', ''Sunday Express'', ''Daily Star'' and ''Daily Star Sunday''; and three celebrity magazines, ''OK!'', ''New!'', and ''Star'') for £126.7 million.

Building

The building at 10 Lower Thames Street was built in 1985 and has a distinctive blue glass facade. It was first built for Samuel Montagu & Co.Planning Application 16/01252/FUL https://www.planning2.cityoflondon.gov.uk/online-applications/files/E10718A1BAED9E3BF59846668C4FDB96/pdf/16_01252_FULMAJ-DESIGN_AND_ACCESS_STATEMENT_PT_1-355418.pdf It is now partly occupied by N&S and partly rented out as serviced offices.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Northern and Shell Mass media companies of the United Kingdom Newspaper companies of the United Kingdom Mass media companies based in London Publishing companies based in London Mass media companies established in 1974 Publishing companies established in 1974 1974 establishments in England Privately held companies of the United Kingdom