The Press: New Hand at an Old Tiller

By Fleet Street standards, London's respected independent Sunday Observer (circ. 384,000) is not a very big paper, but it is accounted a very good one. It has only a twentieth the circulation of the garish, picture-strewn Sunday News of the World, but at least 20 times the influence. The sedate, 157-year-old Observer is only six years the junior of the hoary London Times,* and proud of its past. It missed the boat by giving the battle of Trafalgar a scant squib, but scooped the town on the outbreak of the Crimean War. In 1820 it broke the law by printing news...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!