The Times

===1785 to 1890=== <!-- [[Logography (printing)]] redirects here. If you rename the section, please also update the redirect. -->
[[File:Times 1788.12.04.jpg|thumb|Front page of ''The Times'' from 4 December 1788]]
''The Times'' was founded by publisher [[John Walter (publisher)|John Walter]] (1738–1812) on 1 January 1785 as ''The Daily Universal Register,''<ref name=":0" /> with Walter in the role of editor.<ref name=":2">{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/tools_and_services/services/press_office/article2085354.ece|title=The Times Editors|last=Lewis|first=Leo|date=16 July 2011|work=The Times|access-date=2 September 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716130656/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/tools_and_services/services/press_office/article2085354.ece|archive-date=16 July 2011|location=London}}</ref> Walter had lost his job by the end of 1784 after the insurance company for which he worked went bankrupt due to losses from a Jamaican hurricane. Unemployed, Walter began a new business venture.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://spartacus-educational.com/Jwalter1.htm|title=John Walter|last=Simkin|first=John|date=September 1997|website=Spartacus Educational|access-date=28 December 2019|archive-date=26 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210626115959/https://spartacus-educational.com/Jwalter1.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Walter, John}}</ref> At that time, Henry Johnson invented the logography, a new typography that was reputedly faster and more precise (although three years later, it was proved less efficient than advertised). Walter bought the logography's patent and with it opened a printing house to produce books.<ref name=":1" /> The first publication of the newspaper ''The Daily Universal Register'' was on 1 January 1785. Walter changed the title after 940 editions on 1 January 1788 to ''The Times''.<ref name=":0">{{cite encyclopedia |title=The Times |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Times |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online |access-date=11 September 2016 |archive-date=10 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161010221301/https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Times |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":1" /> In 1803, Walter handed ownership and editorship to [[John Walter (second)|his son]] of the same name.<ref name=":1" />  Walter Sr's pioneering efforts to obtain Continental news, especially from France, helped build the paper's reputation among policy makers and financiers,<ref>{{cite web |title=Times, The – Extracts from – Epsom & Ewell History Explorer |url=https://eehe.org.uk/?p=62078 |website=eehe.org.uk |access-date=11 October 2021 |archive-date=4 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220704001708/https://eehe.org.uk/?p=62078 |url-status=live }}</ref> in spite of a sixteen-month incarceration in [[Newgate Prison]] for [[defamation|libel]]s printed in ''The Times''.<ref name=":1" />

''The Times'' used contributions from significant figures in the fields of politics, science, literature, and the arts to build its reputation. For much of its early life, the profits of ''The Times'' were very large and the competition minimal, so it could pay far better than its rivals for information or writers. Beginning in 1814, the paper was printed on the new steam-driven cylinder press developed by [[Friedrich Koenig]] (1774–1833).<ref>{{cite book|title=American Journalism: History, Principles, Practices: An Historical Reader for Students and Professionals|first1 = W. David |last1 = Sloan |first2 = Lisa Mullikin |last2 = Parcell |isbn=0-7864-1371-9|year=2002|publisher=McFarland & Co. |quote=Koenig had plans to develop a double-feeding printing machine that would increase production, and the publisher of The Times in London ordered two of the double- feeder machines to be built.|url-access=registration |url = https://archive.org/details/americanjournali0000unse_r6h5 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ouBxwQElvVQC&pg=PA106|title=A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet|last1=Briggs|first1=Asa|last2=Burke|first2=Peter|date=2009|publisher=Polity|isbn=978-0-7456-4495-0|pages=106|language=en}}</ref> In 1815, ''The Times'' had a circulation of 5,000.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/20/business/earlier-media-achieved-critical-mass-printing-press-yelling-stop-presses-didn-t.html |title=How the Earlier Media Achieved Critical Mass |first=D. J. R. |last=Bruckner |date=20 November 1995 |newspaper=The New York Times |quote=the circulation of The Times rose from 5,000 in 1815 to 50,000 in the 1850s. |access-date=18 February 2017 |archive-date=1 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701112056/http://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/20/business/earlier-media-achieved-critical-mass-printing-press-yelling-stop-presses-didn-t.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Thomas Barnes (journalist)|Thomas Barnes]] was appointed general editor in 1817. In the same year, the paper's printer James Lawson died, and passed the business onto his son John Joseph Lawson (1802–1852). Under the editorship of Barnes and his successor in 1841, [[John Thadeus Delane]], the influence of ''The Times'' rose to great heights, especially in politics and amongst the [[City of London]]. Peter Fraser and Edward Sterling were two noted journalists, and gained for ''The Times'' the pompous/satirical nickname 'The Thunderer' (from "We thundered out the other day an article on social and political reform."). The increased circulation and influence of the paper was based in part to its early adoption of the steam-driven rotary printing press. Distribution via [[Rail transport|steam trains]] to rapidly growing concentrations of urban populations helped ensure the profitability of the paper and its growing influence.<ref>Lomas, Claire. "[http://journalism.winchester.ac.uk/?page=353 The Steam Driven Rotary Press, The Times and the Empire] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110317185723/http://journalism.winchester.ac.uk/?page=353 |date=17 March 2011 }}"</ref>

[[File:Sir John Everett Millais - Peace Concluded - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|A wounded British officer reading ''The Times's'' report of the end of the [[Crimean War]], in [[John Everett Millais]]' painting ''[[Peace Concluded]]'']]
''The Times'' was one of the first newspapers to send [[war correspondent]]s to cover particular conflicts. [[William Howard Russell]], the paper's correspondent with the army in the [[Crimean War]], was immensely influential with his dispatches back to England.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DXu6XL4g4agC&pg=PA2|title=The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero and Myth-Maker from the Crimea to Iraq|last=Knightley|first=Phillip|date=5 October 2004|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-8030-8|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=January 1896|title=War Correspondents|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aw0HAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA129|journal=The Edinburgh Review|volume=183|issue=375|pages=129}}</ref>