Richard Desmond

What he owns, and previously owned

He is currently a British publisher, current owner of Express Newspapers and founder of Northern and Shell plc.

Express Newspapers publishes the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star Sunday and Daily Star.

Northern and Shell was notorious for publishing dozens of pornographic titles, such as Big Ones, Skinny and Wriggly, Forum, Posh Housewives and Asian Babes, prior to their sale to Remnant Media in 2004.

Despite selling his magazines, he is still the owner of the most popular pornographic television channels in the UK, the Fantasy Channel and Red Hot TV.

How he started out

He first job, which got him into the world of newspapers and magazines, was for Thomson Newspapers, working in classified advertisements.

He moved on to another company and by the age of 21 he owned two record shops. He acquired an interest in publishing and in 1974 published a magazine called International Musician and Recording World.

Publishing career

In 1983 he published a British version of the American pornographic magazine Penthouse.

Desmond's biggest publishing deal was the launch of celebrity magazine OK! in 1993.

He then later bought the Express Newspapers in 2000 for £125m

Controversy

Desmond attracted controversy over his £100,000 donation to the Labour Party. Several prominent Labour members, including Clare Short, broke ranks to question whether the party should be accepting money from a publisher of pornographic magazines.

After buying Express Newspapers in 2000, Desmond became embroiled in a bitter feud with Viscount Rothermere, publisher of the Daily Mail; the rival of the Daily Express as they printed stories relating to Rothermere's private life.

The Daily Mail then ran several articles describing Desmond as a pornographer and christened him "Dirty Desmond”

In April 2004, the Daily Express shifted its support from Labour to the Conservatives. On the same day Desmond caused a scandal by accusing the Daily Telegraph, which was then considering accepting a takeover offer by the German Axel Springer group, of giving in to Nazis.

Desmond reportedly harangued The Daily Telegraph's chief executive and associates in faux German at a business meeting and imitated Adolf Hitler, before erupting in a tirade of four-letter words as he disagreed with the takeover.