The Daily Express switched from broadsheet

Broadsheet

Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...

 to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House

Trafalgar House (company)

Trafalgar House Public Limited Company was a British conglomerate with interests in property investment, property development, engineering, construction, shipping, hotels, energy and publishing...

 in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers. In 1982 Trafalgar House spun off its publishing interests into a new company, Fleet Holdings, under the leadership of Lord Matthews

Victor Matthews, Baron Matthews

Victor Collin Matthews, Baron Matthews of Southgate was Group Managing Director of Trafalgar House, one of the United Kingdom's largest contracting businesses as well as the proprietor of the Daily Express.-Career:...

, but this succumbed to a hostile takeover by United Newspapers in 1985.