The Sun

:For other uses, see Sun (disambiguation).

History

The Sun was launched in 1964 as a replacement for the Daily Herald, an ailing left-wing newspaper which Mirror Group Newspapers had bought from Odhams Press and the TUC. The changes did not help circulation and in 1969 the paper was sold to Murdoch. At this point, the newspaper became a tabloid. The News of the World presses were used during the week - Murdoch had bought that Sunday newspaper the previous year - and the two papers were now managed together at the senior executive levels.

Related Topics:
1964 - Daily Herald - Mirror Group Newspapers - Odhams Press - TUC - 1969 - News of the World

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The editorial content of the paper was popularised and coarsened (initially remaining loyal to the Labour Party) and the circulation increased, particularly when the Page Three Girl feature changed, on its first anniversary in 1970, from being a glamour pinup to a topless photograph, although "Page Three" was not a daily feature at first.

Related Topics:
Labour Party - Page Three Girl - Glamour

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By 1978 The Sun had overtaken its erstwhile stablemate The Mirror in circulation, partly thanks to remorseless advertising on ITV, voiced by actor Christopher Timothy. From 1981, the Sun used Bingo as a promotional tool to increase its circulation still further.

Related Topics:
1978 - The Mirror - ITV - Christopher Timothy

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Despite the industrial relations of the 1970's - the so-called "Spanish practices" of the print unions - The Sun was very profitable, enabling Murdoch to expand to the United States from 1973. In 1986 Murdoch shut down the Bouverie Street premises of the Sun and News of the World and moved operations to the new Wapping complex, blocking union activity and greatly reducing the number of staff employed to print the papers; a year-long picket by sacked workers was eventually defeated (see Wapping dispute). The increased profitability of the two tabloids helped Murdoch to launch the Sky satellite channels and to pursue predatory pricing of The Times (from 1993) against its own rivals.

Related Topics:
1970 - Spanish practices - 1973 - 1986 - Wapping - Picket - Wapping dispute - Sky - The Times - 1993

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Political stance

In the two 1974 elections, the paper's attitude to the Labour Party was "agnostic", according to Roy Greenslade in Press Gang (2003); the then editor, Larry Lamb, was originally from a Labour background, with a socialist upbringing. Deputy editor Bernard Shrimsley was a middle class (although not committed) Tory. Both Lamb and Shrimsley were essentially bound by the decisions of Rupert Murdoch, who decided to back the Conservatives (See Chippindale, P. & Horrie, C. (1999) Stick It Up Your Punter).

Related Topics:
1974 - Larry Lamb - Bernard Shrimsley - Tory - Rupert Murdoch

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As the Labour government limped on and declined in popularity, the Sun's editorial stance became sympathetic to the Conservative Party and it urged its readers to vote for them in the election of 1979. The paper was a strong champion of the Conservative leader, Margaret Thatcher, and her policies. It maintained its support for the Conservatives after Thatcher was succeeded by John Major in 1990. On the day of the 1992 election, its front-page headline was "If Neil Kinnock wins today, will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights", and two days later the Sun was so convinced of its contributions to the Conservative victory that it declared "It Wos The Sun Wot Won It".

Related Topics:
Conservative Party - 1979 - Margaret Thatcher - John Major - 1990 - 1992 - Neil Kinnock

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Subsequently, the paper switched support to Labour following the 1994 election of Tony Blair to the leadership of the Labour Party. Since then it has - despite strong criticism of some of Labour's policies - supported Labour in elections, partly because of a personal relationship between Blair and Murdoch. Murdoch has been accused of trying to exploit his relationship with Blair, and with Thatcher before him, to further his business interests and influence public policy, whilst both politicians have been accused of pandering to the media mogul. More recently, some critics have suggested that both News Corporation staff and politicians in Britain have over-estimated the influence of The Sun on voters.

Related Topics:
1994 - Tony Blair

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