Sunday Times (Ireland Edition)

''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, which is owned by News Corp. Times Newspapers also publishes ''The Times''. The two papers were founded independently and have been under common ownership since 1966. They were bought by News International in 1981.

''The Sunday Times'' has a circulation of just over 650,000, which exceeds that of its main rivals, including ''The'' ''Sunday Telegraph'' and ''The'' ''Observer'', combined. While some other national newspapers moved to a tabloid format in the early 2000s, ''The Sunday Times'' has retained the larger broadsheet format and has said that it would continue to do so. As of December 2019, it sells 75% more copies than its sister paper, ''The Times'', which is published from Monday to Saturday.

The paper publishes ''The Sunday Times'' Rich List and ''The Sunday Times'' Fast Track 100.

History

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 in an apparent 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 floating the Midas Mine Company of 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 Frederick Stannard (‘Phil’) Robinson. Robinson was installed as editor and the two were later married in 1894.

She then sold it in 1893 to Frederick Beer, who already owned ''Observer''. Beer appointed his wife, Rachel Sassoon Beer, as editor. She was already editor of ''Observer'' – the first woman to run a national newspaper – and continued to edit both titles until 1901.

The Kemsley years (1915–59)

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 (1959–81)

In 1959, the Kemsley group was bought 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 picture of the first issue was of Jean Shrimpton wearing a Mary Quant outfit and was taken by David Bailey. 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.

In 1963, the Insight investigative team was established under Clive Irving. On 27 September 1964, the ''Business'' section was launched, making ''The Sunday Times'' Britain's first regular three-section newspaper. In September 1966, Thomson bought ''The Times'', to form Times Newspapers Ltd (TNL). It was the first time both ''The Sunday Times'' and ''The Times'' had been brought under the same ownership.

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 associated with birth defects, and quickly withdrawn. The newspaper published a four-page Insight investigation, entitled ''The Thalidomide File'', in the ''Weekly Review'' section. A compensation settlement for the UK victims was eventually reached with Distillers Company (now part of Diageo), which had distributed the drug in the UK.

TNL was plagued by a series of industrial disputes at its plant at Gray's Inn Road in London, with the print unions resisting attempts to replace the old-fashioned hot-metal and labour-intensive Linotype method with technology that would allow the papers to be composed digitally. Thomson offered to invest millions of pounds to buy out obstructive practices and overmanning, but the unions rejected every proposal. As a result, publication of ''The Sunday Times'' and other titles in the group was suspended in November 1978. It did not resume until November 1979.

Although journalists at ''The Times'' had be