The authority of The Sunday Times is built on an enviable foundation. Started as a rival to The Observer in 1821, The Sunday Times changed hands half a dozen times in its first 150 years. It was under Lady Kelmsley in the 1940s that it really began to establish itself as a paper of quality and authority. When Lord Thomson took over ownership in 1959, The Sunday Times also became a paper of style and innovation. Throughout the 1960s and 70s The Sunday Times was at the forefront of campaigning and investigative journalism, for example exposing the activities of the notorious slum landlord Peter Rachman and winning compensation for the British victims of the Thalidomide drug. The Sunday Times was bought by Rupert Murdoch, as part of Times Newspapers, in 1981 and his investment in the title has helped create the unrivaled Sunday read that exists today.

The newspapers' tradition of campaigning journalism continues as strongly as ever. It was The Sunday Times that took on the banks for soaking their customers with punitive rates and The Sunday Times that has been at the forefront of the 'rip-off' Britain campaign with a series of investigations which revealed price-fixing by manufacturers. The paper also pioneered the use of league tables for schools and hospitals to expose poor standards. Under the threat of court injunctions, the paper has repeatedly challenged government secrecy laws by championing whistleblowers who have sought to expose dubious methods adopted by the intelligence services. Our reconstruction of big news events are definitive: the Insight investigation into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, remains unchallenged.

Sunday Times foreign correspondents are acclaimed for their intrepid reporting from the world's trouble spots. This year, Jon Swain was the first journalist to hike into Kosovo and witness ethnic cleansing after airstrikes began. Marie Colvin was the only newspaper reporter to stay in the besieged United Nations compound in Dili, East Timor, after death threats from militia groups.

The Sunday Times Britain's most authoritative newspaper is built by its history but is shaped by its evolving present and future.The Sunday Times is the Sunday newspapers.