The Times is owned by News Corp (the United States, NASDAQ: NWSA), which acquired the brand on 13 February 1981.[1][2] The Times was founded in 1785 in London and was independent until 1981.
The Times has published in London since 1785 and gave its name to the Times New Roman typeface, commissioned for it in 1932. News Corp has owned it since 1981, under undertakings intended to protect its editorial independence. Those undertakings require a board of independent national directors whose consent is needed to remove the editor, a structure created specifically for the 1981 sale.
News International, the British arm of Rupert Murdoch's group and now News UK, bought The Times and The Sunday Times from the Thomson Organisation after a year in which industrial disputes had suspended publication. Newspaper transfers needed the Secretary of State for Trade's consent under the Fair Trading Act 1973, and the consent came with binding conditions that still shape how the two titles are run.
The Secretary of State for Trade consented to the transfer of The Times and The Sunday Times to News International without asking the Monopolies and Mergers Commission to report, on the basis that both papers were in financial difficulty. The consent carried conditions designed to protect the public interest in accurate reporting and free expression: the two titles were to remain separate, with separate editors, and independent national directors were written into the holding company's articles. Those 1981 conditions bound the papers for the next thirty-eight years.
News UK applied in January 2019 to replace the 1981 conditions, arguing that the requirement to keep each title's journalistic resources entirely separate no longer made sense in a shrinking newspaper market. After two rounds of consultation the Secretary of State accepted undertakings on 23 July 2019 allowing the two papers to share journalists where both editors agree, while keeping the separate editors and the independent national directors. It is one of the few places in this dataset where a remedy imposed on a 1981 acquisition was still being renegotiated four decades later.
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Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of The Times?
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The parent company of The Times is News Corp, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United States.
Is The Times British or American?
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The Times originated in the United Kingdom in 1785, but it is owned today by News Corp, which is headquartered in the United States. So The Times is a British-origin brand under American ownership.
When did News Corp buy The Times?
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News Corp completed its acquisition of The Times on 13 February 1981, after announcing the deal on 22 January 1981. The price was not disclosed.
Who owned The Times before News Corp?
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The Times was an independent company from its founding in 1785 in London until News Corp acquired it in 1981.
Is The Times still owned by News Corp?
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Yes. As of 16 September 2026, The Times is still owned by News Corp. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (3) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.