The Observer, the world's oldest Sunday newspaper, was founded
On this day · 4 December 1791
Launched in Georgian London in 1791, The Observer became the world's first Sunday paper and is still printing today.
On 4 December 1791, W. S. Bourne published the first issue of The Observer in London, creating the world’s first newspaper to appear regularly on a Sunday. At a time when papers were taxed and politically fraught, a weekend edition was a genuine novelty.
Bourne hoped the venture would make him rich. Instead it nearly ruined him; within a few years he was facing debts of close to £1,600 and trying, unsuccessfully, to sell the title to the government.
The paper survived its shaky start and became a fixture of British public life. It was bought by the Guardian’s owner, the Guardian Media Group, in 1993, and in 2025 passed to Tortoise Media.
More than 230 years after that first Sunday print run, The Observer is still published each week, making it comfortably the oldest Sunday newspaper in the world and a small monument to the staying power of weekend reading.
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