The paper was founded by members of the Tory government led by William Pitt the Younger to counter the contemporary pro-revolutionary press.
John Heriot, a Scottish journalist and writer, had worked for the Oracle and the World newspapers in 1791, editing both, but did not remain in either post for long.
In 1792, at the instigation of Edmund Burke, he was recruited by the British Treasury to establish a pro-government newspaper, the Sun.
Young organised teams of reporters, in Parliament and across the country, printed late into the night (unusual for an evening paper) and used mounted delivery riders and the stagecoach system, to ensure that The Sun gathered and distributed news faster than his rivals, sometimes beating the morning papers by 12 hours with news of Parliament, provincial political meetings and sporting events.
[6] A former employee remembered that "Murdo Young was perhaps at the time the most enterprising news publisher in all London, and it was one of the sights of the great Metropolis to witness the despatch of the Express Edition from 112, Strand, to the General Post-Office, St Martin's-le-Grand."