Minggu Pagi was established as a magazine in Yogyakarta on 7 December 1948 by M. Wonohito and H. Samawi; the former was the editor in chief of the newspaper Kedaulatan Rakyat.

[4] In 1992 the United States Information Service described Minggu Pagi, which by then consisted of twelve pages, as one of the oldest extant press publications in Indonesia.

Among short story writers and other authors, the magazine was seen as providing an alternative space for publication, one accessible to those who had not yet been recognized by the Jakarta-based "rulers" of the Indonesian literary canon.

[6] In the 1950s, the Indonesian author Nasjah Djamin [id] described Minggu Pagi as a "cesspool", a descriptor that the academic Will Derks characterises as "embracing the low status and insignificance [the magazine] might have had in the eyes of scholars and critics".

These included Motinggo Busye, Satyagraha Hoerip, Rendra, Bakri Siregar, and Djamin, who published his novel Hilanglah Si Anak Hilang in Minggu Pagi between 1960 and 1961 on request of the editors.