The Times Newspaper
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A Brief history of The Times
The Times is part of Times Newspapers Limited and is a subsidiary of News International, which is owned by the News Corporation group under Mr Rupert Murdoch (the world media baron). It is printed Monday-Saturday in compact (tabloid) format and has an average daily circulation of 600,962 as of December 2008. The newspaper is traditionally a moderately centre-right newspaper, but supported the Labour Party under Tony Blair at the general elections in 2001 and 2005. Nevertheless, the Times changed allegiance on 1st May 2010 by officially endorsing the Conservative Party for the first time in 18 years.
The Times was originally founded as The Daily Universal Register on 1st January 1785 by John Walter. In his opening editorial, John Walter declared that a newspaper "ought to be the register of the times and faithful recorder of every species of intelligence; it ought not to be engrossed by any particular object; but like a well covered table, it should contain something suited to every palate: observations on the dispositions of our own and of foreign courts should be provided for the political reader; debates should be reported for the amusement or information of those who may be particularly fond of them; and a due attention should be paid to the interests of trade, which are so greatly promoted by advertisements".
On 1st January 1788, John Walter changed the name of the newspaper to The Times, which is a newspaper title recognised worldwide today as a newspaper of record.
The Times remained in the Walter family for four generations up to 1908, when it was bought by Alfred Harmsworth (later Lord Northcliffe) of the Daily Mail. On the death of Lord Northcliffe in 1922, the newspaper was purchased by John Jacob Astor, who was a son of William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor of The Observer newspaper (and should not be confused with John Jacob Astor IV who died on The Titanic in 1912). The Astor family sold The Times to the Canadian media entrepreneur Roy Thomson (1st Baron Thomson of Fleet) in 1966. Rupert Murdoch's News International purchased The Times (as part of Times Newspaper Limited) from Roy Thomson in 1981.
The Times Library Edition was introduced on 2nd July 1917. This was a special edition printed on quality paper for libraries and royal palaces. It was renamed the Times Royal Edition in 1922 and continued to be printed until 31st December 1969.
On 3rd May 1966 The Times printed news stories on the front page for the first time- the front page had previously been dedicated to advertisements and paid announcements (births, marriages & deaths) which helped significantly towards the costs of producing the newspaper.
The Times newspaper was closed down due to an industrial dispute from 1st December 1978 until 12th November 1979 and thus no Times newspapers were printed during this period (first issue after the strike was 13th November 1979).
The Times magazine (which should not be confused with Time magazine) was first printed as the Saturday colour magazine supplement of the newspaper on 13th March 1993.
The Times newspaper was a broadsheet newspaper until November 2003, when it started to produce a compact (tabloid) edition of the newspaper in addition to the broadsheet edition. Since 1st November 2004, the newspaper has been printed in compact format only- although its sister paper The Sunday Times remains a broadsheet newspaper and the new "Saturday Review" supplement of the Saturday edition of the Times is also printed in broadsheet format.
Currently, the main regular supplement in The Times (Monday-Friday) is the "times2" features section which includes TV/Radio listings and reviews. There is also "The Game" sports section which appears on Mondays only and the "Bricks & Mortar" property supplement on Fridays.
The Saturday edition of the newspaper was re-launched on 24th January 2009 with the "Money" section incorporated into the main newspaper whilst the sports coverage was given its own separate section. Thus the Saturday edition currently includes "The Times Magazine", the "Playlist" magazine (TV/Radio listings and film/theatre & music reviews) plus the "Saturday Review" (arts & books), "Weekend" (body & soul, food & drink and travel) and "Sport" newspaper supplements.