The Times of London

The Times is a British daily newspaper founded in 1785 as The Daily Universal Register, changing its name to The Times in 1788. Nicknamed 'The Thunderer', it is regarded as the newspaper of the British Establishment and has traditionally followed a right-of-centre political line, sometimes embarrassingly so, as with its editorial support of appeasement in the 1930s. The paper was closed down by an industrial dispute between December 1978 and November 1979. Since 1981, The Times and associated titles have been owned by the News Group controlled by Rupert Murdoch. In 1986 the newspaper editorial and production facilities were moved from central London (near Fleet Street) to a new site at Wapping, east London, where modernised plant and working methods were to be employed. This prompted a year-long strike by printworkers, accompanied by picket-line violence, but production of the newspaper was never completely interrupted.