[2] Billed as "the paper with the feelgood factor," it contained news and features on a broad range of subjects in six colour-coded sections: That's Real Life, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Puzzles, Short Stories and Sport.

The first Weekly News came out on 12 May 1855, and was a national miscellany news-sheet, primarily for working people or "artisans".

It owes its origins, however, to an offshoot of the Dundee-based Northern Warder newspaper just over a year earlier.

The circulation of the paper rose under the guidance of brothers David Couper and Frederick Thomson, from 60,000 in 1886 to 300,000 twenty-five years later.

It was one of seven titles in DC Thomson history to sell over a million, and fourth in the list behind The Dandy, The Beano and The Sunday Post.