The Daily Mail is a British national newspaper, first published as a broadsheet in 1896 by Alfred Harmsworth, later made 1st Viscount Northcliffe. The newspaper was formed as the result of a merger between the Hull Packet and The Hull Evening News. Harmsworth and his brother Harold edited and managed the paper. From 1900 the paper was printed simultaneously in London and Manchester. By 1902 circulation had reached over one million, placing amongst the top-selling newspapers of the day.

The Daily Mail has been published by the Daily Mail and General Trust since 1922, when the trust was created to oversee the Harmsworth family's media interests. In 1929 Esmond Harmsworth, son of Harold, took over the Chairmanship, alongside the 2nd Lord Rothermere. Under their aegis the trust was floated on the stock exchange in 1932.

In the 1930s the paper supported fascism, with favourable reporting on Mussolini, Hitler and Oswald Moseley's Blackshirts - The British Union of Fascists.

The postwar years saw the launch of a Scottish edition of the Mail, in 1946. Initially printed in Edinburgh, then Manchester, the paper was moved to Glasgow in 1995.

The Mail went from broadsheet to tabloid format in 1971. In the same year it took over The Daily Sketch.

The 3rd Lord Rothermere, Vere Harmsworth, became Chair of the Daily Mail and General Trust in 1978. He was succeeded by his son Jonathan Harmsworth in 1998. This period saw the launch of a sister paper, The Mail on Sunday, in 1982. The Mail stopped being printed in Manchester in 1987.

Today the Mail is Britain's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its headquarters are currently at 2 Northcliffe House, London. Its online presence, MailOnline, reaches a global audience. Recent editors include Paul Dacre, and Geordie Greig, who succeeded him in 2018.