Founding and early history (1821–1915) The paper began publication on 18 February 1821 as
The New Observer, but from 21 April its title was changed to the
Independent Observer. Its founder, Henry White, chose the name apparently in an attempt to take advantage of the success of
The Observer, which had been founded in 1791, although there was no connection between the two papers. On 20 October 1822 it was reborn as
The Sunday Times, although it had no relationship with
The Times. In January 1823, White sold the paper to
Daniel Whittle Harvey, a radical politician. Under its new owner,
The Sunday Times notched up several firsts. A wood engraving it published of the coronation of
Queen Victoria in 1838 was the largest illustration to have appeared in a British newspaper. In 1841, it became one of the first papers to serialise a novel:
William Harrison Ainsworth's ''
Old St Paul's''. The paper was bought in 1887 by
Alice Anne Cornwell, who had made a fortune in mining in Australia and by floating the Midas Mine Company on the London Stock Exchange. She bought the paper to promote her new company, The British and Australasian Mining Investment Company, and as a gift to her lover
Phil Robinson. Robinson was installed as editor and the two were later married in 1894. In 1893 Cornwell sold the paper to Frederick Beer, who already owned
The Observer. Beer appointed his wife,
Rachel Sassoon Beer, as editor. She was already editor of
The Observer – the first woman to run a national newspaper – and continued to edit both titles until 1901.
The Kemsley years (1915–1959) There was a further change of ownership in 1903, and then in 1915 the paper was bought by
William Berry and his brother, Gomer Berry, later ennobled as Lord Camrose and
Viscount Kemsley respectively. Under their ownership,
The Sunday Times continued its reputation for innovation: on 23 November 1930, it became the first Sunday newspaper to publish a 40-page issue and on 21 January 1940, news replaced advertising on the front page. In 1943, the Kemsley Newspapers Group was established, with
The Sunday Times becoming its flagship paper. At this time, Kemsley was the largest newspaper group in Britain. On 12 November 1945,
Ian Fleming, who later created
James Bond, joined the paper as foreign manager (foreign editor) and special writer. The following month, circulation reached 500,000. On 28 September 1958, the paper launched a separate Review section, becoming the first newspaper to publish two sections regularly.
The Thomson years (1959–1981) The Kemsley group was bought in 1959 by
Lord Thomson, and in October 1960 circulation reached one million for the first time. In another first, on 4 February 1962 the editor,
Denis Hamilton, launched
The Sunday Times Magazine. (At the insistence of newsagents, worried at the impact on sales of standalone magazines, it was initially called the "colour section" and did not take the name
The Sunday Times Magazine until 9 August 1964.) The cover of the first issue, titled "A sharp glance at the mood of Britain" featured a full-bleed 11-frame grid of
David Bailey photographs of
Jean Shrimpton wearing a
Mary Quant outfit, surrounding one frame devoted to a
John Bulmer action pic of
Burnley’s legendary striker
Jimmy McIlroy. The magazine got off to a slow start, but the advertising soon began to pick up, and, over time, other newspapers launched magazines of their own. English writer
Jilly Cooper got her first break in journalism, writing a column on young married life from 1968, leading to her first book
How to Stay Married and a 2020 collection,
Between the Covers.
Harold Evans, editor from 1967 until 1981, established
The Sunday Times as a leading campaigning and investigative newspaper. On 19 May 1968, the paper published its first major campaigning report on the drug
thalidomide, which had been reported by the Australian doctor
William McBride in
The Lancet in 1961 as being associated with birth defects, and been quickly withdrawn. The newspaper published a four-page Insight investigation, titled "The Thalidomide File", in the "Weekly Review" section. On 17 November 1972, the
Queen's Bench Divisional Court issued an injunction to prevent
The Sunday Times from publishing further articles, as it was feared that the paper's campaign might affect ongoing lawsuits over
the ensuing scandal. The newspaper appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which found that the injunction violated the publisher's right to
freedom of expression, noting that the articles were moderate and balanced and thus unlikely to disrupt proceedings.
The Murdoch years (1981–present) Rupert Murdoch's
News International acquired the group in February 1981. Murdoch, an Australian who in 1985 became a
naturalised American citizen, already owned
The Sun and the
News of the World, but the Conservative government decided not to refer the deal to the
Monopolies and Mergers Commission, citing a clause in the
Fair Trading Act that exempted uneconomic businesses from referral.
The Thomson Corporation had threatened to close the papers down if they were not taken over by someone else within an allotted time, and it was feared that any legal delay to Murdoch's takeover might lead to the two titles' demise. In return, Murdoch provided legally binding guarantees to preserve the titles' editorial independence. Evans was appointed editor of
The Times in February 1981 and was replaced at
The Sunday Times by
Frank Giles. In 1983, the newspaper bought the serialisation rights to publish the faked
Hitler Diaries, thinking them to be genuine after they were authenticated by the own newspaper's own independent director,
Hugh Trevor-Roper, the historian and author of
The Last Days of Hitler. Under
Andrew Neil, editor from 1983 until 1994,
The Sunday Times took a strongly
Thatcherite slant that contrasted with the traditional paternalistic conservatism expounded by
Peregrine Worsthorne at the rival
Sunday Telegraph. It also built on its reputation for investigations. Its scoops included the revelation in 1986 that Israel had manufactured more than 100
nuclear warheads and the publication in 1992 of extracts from
Andrew Morton's book,
Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words. In January 1986, after the announcement of a
strike by print workers, production of
The Sunday Times, along with other newspapers in the group, was shifted to a new plant in Wapping, and the strikers were dismissed. The plant, which allowed journalists to input copy directly, was activated with the help of the
Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union (EETPU). The print unions posted pickets and organised demonstrations outside the new plant to try to dissuade journalists and others from working there, in what became known as the
Wapping dispute. The demonstrations sometimes turned violent. The protest ended in failure in February 1987. During Neil's time as editor,
The Sunday Times backed a campaign to prove that HIV was not a cause of AIDS. In 1990,
The Sunday Times serialised a book by an American conservative who rejected the scientific consensus on the causes of AIDS and argued that AIDS could not spread to heterosexuals.
John Witherow oversaw a rise in circulation to 1.3 million and reconfirmed
The Sunday Times reputation for publishing hard-hitting news stories – such as the
cash for questions scandal in 1994 and the
cash for honours scandal in 2006, and revelations of
corruption at FIFA in 2010. The newspaper's foreign coverage has been especially strong, and its reporters,
Marie Colvin,
Jon Swain,
Hala Jaber,
Mark Franchetti and
Christina Lamb have dominated the Foreign Reporter of the Year category at the
British Press Awards since 2000. Colvin, who worked for the paper from 1985, was killed in February 2012 by Syrian forces while covering the
siege of Homs during that country's civil war. In common with other newspapers,
The Sunday Times has been hit by a fall in circulation, which has declined from a peak of 1.3 million to just over 710,000. It has a number of digital-only subscribers, which numbered 99,017 by January 2019. During January 2013,
Martin Ivens became 'acting' editor of
The Sunday Times in succession to John Witherow, who became the 'acting' editor of
The Times at the same time. The independent directors rejected a permanent position for Ivens as editor to avoid any possible merger of
The Sunday Times and daily
Times titles. In 2019, after passing government scrutiny,
The Sunday Times and
The Times began to "share resources" in what was considered a partial merger, though retaining distinct editors. ==Circulation==