The Observer

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Image:TheObserver-UK-logo.gif

Type	Weekly newspaper
Format	Broadsheet

Owner(s)	Guardian Media Group
Founded	1791
Political position	liberal/social democratic
Headquarters	Farringdon, London
Editor-in-chief	Roger Alton

Website	www.observer.co.uk

For other uses, see The Observer (disambiguation).

The Observer is a broadsheet newspaper of the United Kingdom published on Sundays. It takes a liberal/social democratic line on most issues. Its daily sister paper is The Guardian.

1 History
2 The Newsroom
3 Editors
4 See also
5 External links

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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. It remained a Tory paper, as it had always been, until 1942, with the end of the 34-year editorship of J. L. Garvin. After his time, it declared itself non-partisan, an unusual stance for the time.

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. David Astor turned the paper into a trust-owned newspaper employing the likes of George Orwell. Under Astor's editorship the Observer became the first national newspaper to oppose the government's 1956 invasion of Suez, a move which cost it many readers. In 1977, the Astors sold the ailing newspaper to US oil giant Atlantic Richfield (now called ARCO) who sold it to Lonrho plc in 1981. Since June 1993, it has been part of the Guardian Media Group.

In 1990 Farzad Bazoft, a journalist for the Observer, was executed in Iraq on (false) charges of spying.

On February 27, 2005 The Observer Blog [1] was launched, making The Observer the first newspaper to purposefully document its own internal decisions, and the first newspaper to indulge in podcasting; however, that September the experimental blog was "mothballed."

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The Newsroom

The Observer and its sister newspaper The Guardian operate a visitor centre in London called The Newsroom.[2] It contains their archives, including bound copies of old editions, a photographic library and other items such as diaries, letters and notebooks. This material may be consulted by members of the public. The Newsroom also mounts temporary exhibitions and runs an educational programme for schools.

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