On this day the Observer newspaper was published for the first time. It is the oldest Sunday newspaper in the world still being published. In the first issue, the founder W.S. Bourne, said that the newspaper would share “the spirit of enlightened Freedom, decent Toleration and universal Benevolence.” Bourne was convinced that the newspaper would make him rich, but he soon found himself facing serious debts. After some haggling, the government agreed to subsidise the newspaper in exchange for a certain influence over its editorial content. As a result, the newspaper took a strong stance against some of the more radical freethinkers of the period.
Observer Newspaper First Published
4th December 1791