The Observer

History

The first issue (published on December 4, 1791), was the world's first Sunday newspaper.

In 1911, William Waldorf Astor (1848-1919) purchased The Observer from the Harmsworth family. The Observer had changed its position in 1942. Till then, it had always been a Tory paper, under the 34-year editorship of J. L. Garvin. After his time, it declared itself non-partisan, at that time an unusual stance, but today one claimed by almost all papers.

Passed on to son Waldorf Astor, he in turn passed it on in 1948 to his sons, of which David Astor (1912-2001) would be the paper's editor for 27 years. In 1977, the Astors sold the ailing newspaper to US oil giant Atlantic Richfield (now called ARCO) for US$1 who later sold it to Lonrho plc. Since June 1993, it has been part of the Guardian Media Group.

On February 27, 2005 it launched The Observer Blog [1], making it the first newspaper to purposefully document its own internal decisions, and the first newspaper to indulge in podcasting.

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