Launched by the late Robert Maxwell in 1990, this was envisaged as 'Europe's first national newspaper' and had an initial projected circulation of over half a million, across several European nations. However, it in the end achieved only maximum weekly sales of 180,000.
Bought by the Barclay Brothers in '92 and advertised by comediennes French & Saunders on TV, The European was an intelligent, perspicacious newspaper which, although itself anti-Communist and pro-free market, saw itself as a voice for those in the European Union who disliked US global hegemony. At the time, the United States occupied a position of unparalled power and influence in the world- it had won the first Gulf War, had presided over the collapse of the USSR, and was lining itself up for economic and cultural domination of the entire globe. The European sought to counter this by promoting and fostering the influence of the EU, maintaining intelligent political argument, and upholding high cultural standards against a creeping infiltration by McDonalds and Mickey Mouse.
Regular contributors included Sir Peter Ustinov and former Times editor Andrew Neill, who ran it's economic & financial section. However, this remarkable weekly 'paper did not survive the economic crisis of the late '90s, and went under in 1998.
Do You Remember The European newspaper?
Do You Remember The European newspaper?