The Daily Express was founded by Arthur Pearson in 1900. It created an immediate impact as it was the first ever newspaper to carry news instead of advertisements on its front page.

In 1916 the newspaper was purchased by Max Aitken, the Conservative MP for Ashton-Under-Lyne. He told his readers that his newspaper was "the prophet of equal opportunity and the unrelenting opponent of that system of preferred chances which gives one man an unfair opportunity over a more competent rival." David Lloyd George, recognised Aitken's skill as a mass communicator and appointed him as Minister of Information in his First World War coalition government.

After the war Aitken (granted the title Lord Beaverbrook in 1918) became Britain's leading newspaper magnate. He established the Sunday Express and acquired the Evening Standard and in 1931 commissioned the impressive Daily Express Building in Fleet Street. By 1936 the Daily Express had the largest circulation in the world (2.25 million).