DC Thomson is a private media company with a headquarters in Dundee, Scotland, and a London base on Fleet Street. They publish newspapers, magazines, comic books and has interests in new media and digital technology. The DC Thomson group contains findmypast, Beano Studios and The Stylist magazine group.

DC Thomson is a family enterprise that began in the early 19th century thanks to the entrepreneurship of William Thomson. The firm’s main busines was in shipping at this point, but they took an interest in publishing during the mid-19th century when they bought the Dundee Courier in 1886.

At this point, there were two major publishing houses in Dundee, with the other one being run by Sir John Leng. These two companies merged in 1905 under the leadership of David Couper Thomson, where the company name D.C. Thomson comes from.

Timeline:

July 30th 1938 – The Beano is launched

1987 – the company buys a 30% share in Waterstones bookshops