العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
EspañolTHE GUARDIAN
(Redirected from The Guardian newspaper)
'''The Guardian''' is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. It is published Monday to Saturday in the Berliner format. Until 1959 it was called '''The Manchester Guardian''', which reflected its origins; the paper is rarely still referred to by this name – except in North America, where the old name is sometimes used (to distinguish it from other newspapers with similar names). The newspaper's main offices and printing centres are located in London and Manchester.
''The Guardian Weekly'', which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers. It contains articles from ''The Guardian'' and its Sunday paper, ''The Observer'', as well as reports, features and book reviews from ''The Washington Post'' and articles translated from France's ''Le Monde''.
Editorial articles in ''The Guardian'' are generally in sympathy with the middle-ground liberal to left-wing end of the political spectrum. This is reflected in the paper's readership: a MORI Poll taken between April and June 2000 showed that 80% of ''Guardian'' readers were Labour Party voters (cited in ''International Socialism'' Spring 2003, ISBN 1-898876-97-5); according to another MORI poll taken in 2004, 44% of ''Guardian'' readers vote Labour and 37% vote Liberal Democrat[1].
Today ''The Guardian'' is the only British national newspaper to publish in full colour (although the edition printed in Northern Ireland still has much black-and-white content [2]); it was also the first newspaper in the UK to be printed on the Berliner size. In May 2007 ''The Guardian'' had a certified average daily circulation of 371,754 copies, as compared to sales of 894,258 for the ''Daily Telegraph'', 636,777 for ''The Times'', and 245,466 for ''The Independent''[3].
It has been awarded the ''National Newspaper of the Year'' in 1999 and 2006 by the British Press Awards, as well as being co-winner of the ''World's Best-designed Newspaper'' as awarded by the Society for News Design (2006). The ''Guardian Unlimited'' website won the Best Newspaper category two years running in the 2005 and 2006 Webby Awards, beating (in 2005) the ''New York Times'', the ''Washington Post'', the ''Wall Street Journal'' and ''Variety''[4]. It has been the winner for six years in a row of the British Press Awards for Best Electronic Daily Newspaper.[5] The site won an ''Eppy'' award from the US-based magazine ''Editor & Publisher'' in 2000 for the best-designed newspaper online service [6]. The website is known for its commentary on sporting events, particularly its over-by-over cricket commentary.
In 2007 it was ranked first in a study on transparency which analysed 25 mainstream English-language media vehicles, and which was conducted by the prestigious International Center for Media and the Public Agenda of the University of Maryland. It got a nearly perfect score.
''The Guardian'' is part of the GMG Guardian Media Group of newspapers, radio stations, and print media including ''The Observer'' Sunday newspaper, the ''Manchester Evening News'', ''Money Observer'' financial magazine, ''The Guardian Weekly'' International newspaper, ''Guardian Monthly'' magazine, and new media - Guardian Abroad website, and ''Guardian Unlimited'', one of the most popular online news resources on the Internet. All the aforementioned are owned by The Scott Trust, a charitable foundation which aims to ensure the newspaper's editorial independence in perpetuity, maintaining its financial health to ensure it does not become vulnerable to take over by for-profit media groups, and the serious compromise of editorial independence that this often brings.
''The Guardian'' has been consistently loss-making. The National Newspaper division of GMG, which also includes ''The Observer'', reported operating losses of £49.9m in 2006, up from £18.6m in 2005.[7] The paper is therefore heavily dependent on cross-subsidisation from profitable companies within the group, including Auto Trader and the ''Manchester Evening News''.
''The Guardian's ownership by the Scott Trust is likely a factor in it being the only British national daily to conduct (since 2003) an annual social, ethical and environmental audit in which it examines, under the scrutiny of an independent external auditor, its own behaviour as a company.[8] It is also the only British daily national newspaper to employ an internal ombudsman (called the ‘readers' editor’) to handle complaints and corrections.
''The Guardian'' and its parent groups participate in Project Syndicate,[9] established by George Soros, and intervened in 1995 to save the ''Mail & Guardian'' in South Africa, but Guardian Media Group sold the majority of its shares in the ''Mail & Guardian'' in 2002.
The ''Manchester Guardian'' was founded in Manchester in 1821 by a group of non-conformist businessmen headed by John Edward Taylor. The prospectus announcing the new publication proclaimed that "it will zealously enforce the principles of civil and religious Liberty … it will warmly advocate the cause of Reform; it will endeavour to assist in the diffusion of just principles of Political Economy; and to support, without reference to the party from which they emanate, all serviceable measures."
Its most famous editor, C P Scott, made the ''Manchester Guardian'' into a nationally famous newspaper. He was editor for 57 years from 1872, and became its owner when he bought the paper from the estate of Taylor's son in 1907. Under Scott the paper's moderate editorial line became more radical, supporting Gladstone when the Liberals split in 1886, and opposing the Second Boer War against popular opinion.
Scott's friendship with Chaim Weizmann played a role in the Balfour Declaration, and in 1948 the ''Guardian'' was a supporter of the State of Israel. Daphna Baram tells the story of the ''Guardian's relationship with the zionist movement and Israel in the book "''Disenchantment: The Guardian and Israel''".[10]
In June 1936 ownership of the paper passed to the Scott Trust (named after the last owner, John Russell Scott, who was the first chairman of the Trust). This move ensured the paper's independence, and it was then noted for its eccentric style, its moralising and its detached attitude to its finances.
Traditionally affiliated with the centrist Liberal Party, and with a northern, non-conformist circulation base, the paper earned a national reputation and the respect of the left during the Spanish Civil War. With the pro-Liberal ''News Chronicle'', the Labour-supporting ''Daily Herald'', the Communist Party's ''Daily Worker'' and several Sunday and weekly papers, it supported the 'Republican' government against General Francisco Franco's insurgent 'nationalists'. Consistent in its anti-establishment stance, the Guardian also provided one of the few probing and dissenting voices during the 1956 Suez Crisis.
In 1983 the paper was at the centre of a controversy surrounding documents regarding the stationing of cruise missiles in Britain that were leaked to the Guardian by civil servant Sarah Tisdall. ''The Guardian'' eventually complied with a court order to hand over the documents to the authorities, which resulted in a prison sentence for Tisdall.
In 1995, both the Granada Television programme ''World In Action'' and ''The Guardian'' were sued for libel by the then cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken, for their allegation that the Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Fahd had paid for Aitken and his wife to stay at the Hôtel Ritz in Paris, which would have amounted to accepting a bribe on Aitken's part. Aitken publicly stated he would fight with "the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play".[11] The court case proceeded, and in 1997 ''The Guardian'' produced evidence that Aitken's claim of his wife paying for the hotel stay was untrue.[12] In 1999, Aitken was jailed for perjury and perverting the course of justice.[13]
In the early 2000s the newspaper challenged the Act of Settlement 1701 and the Treason Felony Act 1848. [14][15]
During the Afghanistan and Iraq wars ''The Guardian'' attracted a significant proportion of anti-war readers as one of the mass-media outlets most critical of UK and USA military initiatives.
Despite its early support for the Zionist movement, in recent decades ''The Guardian'' has often been perceived as critical of Israel. In December 2003 journalist Julie Burchill left the paper for ''The Times'', citing this as one of the reasons for her move.[16]
In a recent controversy, the paper has been accused by Alan Dershowitz writing in the ''Jerusalem Post'' of bias and failure to print corrections of mis-statements of fact in their articles and editorials.[17] This allegation was denied by the Guardian's foreign editor, Harriet Sherwood, who says the paper aims to cover all viewpoints in the Israel-Palestine conflict.[18] On 6 June 2007 the paper commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War by giving equal space to the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers to explain their views on the conflict and its legacy. [19][20]
In August 2004, for the US presidential election, the daily ''G2'' supplement launched an experimental letter-writing campaign in Clark County, Ohio, a small county in a swing state. ''G2'' editor Ian Katz bought a voter list from the county for $25 and asked readers to write to people listed as undecided in the election and, giving them an impression of the international view and the importance of making the correct decision. There was something of a backlash to this campaign. The paper scrapped ''Operation Clark County'' on 21 October, 2004 after first publishing a column of vituperation under the headline 'Dear Limey assholes'.[1]
In October 2004 ''The Guardian'' published a humour column by Charlie Brooker in its entertainment guide, which appeared to call for the assassination of US President George W. Bush.[21] This caused some controversy and the paper was forced to issue an apology and remove the article from its website.[22]
Following the 7 July 2005 London bombings, ''The Guardian'' published an article on its comment pages by Dilpazier Aslam, a 27 year old British Muslim journalism trainee from Yorkshire.[23] Aslam was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist group, and had published a number of articles on their website. According to the paper, it did not know that Aslam was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir when he applied to become a trainee, though several staff members were informed of this once he started at the paper.[24] The Home Office has claimed the group's "ultimate aim is the establishment of an Islamic state (Caliphate), according to Hizb ut-Tahrir via non-violent means". ''The Guardian'' asked Aslam to resign his membership of the group and, when he did not do so, terminated his employment.[25]
Overall, nevertheless, the paper is generally held up as an example of good journalism and its comment and opinion pages, though dominated by centre-left writers and academics like Polly Toynbee, allow significant space for right of centre voices such as Simon Jenkins.
The first edition was published on May 5, 1821,[26] at which time the ''Guardian'' was a weekly, published on Saturdays and costing 7d.; the stamp duty on newspapers (4d. per sheet) forced the price up so high that it was uneconomic to publish more frequently. When the stamp duty was cut in 1836 the ''Guardian'' added a Wednesday edition; with the abolition of the tax in 1855 it became a daily paper costing 2d.
In 1952 the paper took the step of printing news on the front page, replacing the adverts that had hitherto filled that space. Then-editor A. P. Wadsworth wrote: "It is not a thing I like myself, but it seems to be accepted by all the newspaper pundits that it is preferable to be in fashion."
In 1959 the paper dropped "Manchester" from its title, becoming simply ''The Guardian'', and in 1964 it moved to London, losing some of its regional agenda but continuing to be heavily subsidised by sales of the less intellectual but much more profitable ''Manchester Evening News''. The financial position remained extremely poor into the 1970s; at one time it was in merger talks with ''The Times''. The paper consolidated its centre-left stance during the 1970s and 1980s but was both shocked and revitalised by the launch of ''The Independent'' in 1986 which competed for a similar readership and provoked the entire broadsheet industry into a fight for circulation.
On 12 February 1988 ''The Guardian'' had a significant redesign; as well as improving the quality of its printers' ink, it also changed its masthead to the now familiar juxtaposition of an italic Garamond "''The''", with a bold Helvetica "Guardian", which remained in use until the 2005 redesign.
In 1992 it relaunched its features section as G2, a tabloid-format supplement. This innovation was widely copied by the other "quality" broadsheets, and ultimately led to the rise of "compact" papers and ''The Guardian's move to the Berliner format. In 1993 the paper declined to participate in the broadsheet 'price war' started by Rupert Murdoch's ''The Times''. In June 1993, ''The Guardian'' bought ''The Observer'' from Lonrho, thus gaining a serious Sunday newspaper partner with similar political views.
Its international weekly edition is now titled ''The Guardian Weekly'', though it retained the title ''Manchester Guardian Weekly'' for some years after the home edition had moved to London. It includes sections from a number of other internationally significant newspapers of a somewhat left-of-centre inclination, including ''Le Monde''. The Guardian Weekly is also linked to a website for expatriates Guardian Abroad.
''g24'' is a constantly-updated electronic newspaper available free of charge.[2] It is downloadable as a PDF file. The contents come from ''The Guardian'' and its Sunday sibling ''The Observer''.
In 2004, ''The Guardian'' announced plans to change to a "Berliner" or "midi" format similar to that used by the ''Berliner Zeitung'' and ''Le Monde'' in France and many other European papers; at 470×315 mm, this is slightly larger than a traditional tabloid. Planned for the autumn of 2005, this change was either a response to, or has the same cause as, the moves by ''The Times'' and ''The Independent'' to start publishing in tabloid (or compact) format. On Thursday 1 September 2005 ''The Guardian'' announced that it would launch the new format on Monday 12 September 2005.[27] Sister Sunday newspaper ''The Observer'' went over to the same format on 8 January 2006.
The advantage that ''The Guardian'' saw in the Berliner format was that though it is only a little wider than a tabloid, and is thus equally easy to read on public transport, its greater height gives more flexibility in page design. The new presses mean that printing can go right across the 'gutter', the strip down the middle of the centre page, allowing the paper to print striking double page pictures. The new presses also made the paper the first UK national able to print in full colour on every page.
The format switch was accompanied by a comprehensive redesign of the paper's look. On Friday 9 September 2005 the newspaper unveiled its new look front page, which débuted on Monday 12 September 2005. Designed by Mark Porter, the new look includes a new masthead for the newspaper, its first since 1988. A typeface family called Guardian Egyptian, designed by Paul Barnes (designer) and Christian Schwartz, was created for the new design. No other typeface is used anywhere in the paper - all stylistic variations are based on various forms of Guardian Egyptian.
The switch cost Guardian Newspapers £80 million and involved setting up new printing presses in east London and Manchester. This was because prior to the Guardian's move, no printing presses in the UK could produce newspapers in the Berliner format. There were additional complications as one of the Guardian's presses was part-owned by ''Telegraph Newspapers'' and ''Express Newspapers'', and it was contracted to use the plant until 2009. Another press was shared with the Guardian Media Group's north western tabloid local papers, which did not wish to switch to the Berliner format.
The new format was generally well received by ''Guardian'' readers, who were asked to feedback on the changes. The only controversy was over the dropping of the ''Doonesbury'' cartoon strip. ''The Guardian'' reported thousands of calls and emails complaining about its loss and within 24 hours, the decision was reversed and the strip was reinstated the following week. ''G2'' section editor Ian Katz, who was responsible for dropping it, apologised in the editors' blog saying, "I'm sorry, once again, that I made you - and the hundreds of fellow fans who have called our helpline or mailed our comments' address - so cross"[28] Some readers are however dissatisfied as the earlier deadline needed for the all-colour sports section has meant that coverage of late-finishing evening football matches is less satisfactory than before the redesign in the editions supplied to some parts of the country.
The investment was rewarded with a circulation rise. In December 2005, the average daily sale stood at 380,693, nearly 6% higher than the figure for December 2004.[29] In 2006, the US-based Society for News Design chose ''The Guardian'' and Polish daily ''Rzeczpospolita'' as the world's best-designed newspapers – from among 389 entries from 44 countries.[30]
On each weekday ''The Guardian'' comes with the G2 supplement containing feature articles, columns, television and radio listings, and the quick crossword. Since the change to the Berliner format, there is a separate daily Sport section. Other regular supplements during the week include:
; Monday : ''MediaGuardian, Office Hours''
; Tuesday : ''EducationGuardian''
; Wednesday : ''SocietyGuardian'' (covers the British public sector and related issues)
; Thursday : ''TechnologyGuardian''
; Friday : ''Film & Music''
; Saturday : ''The Guide'' (a weekly listings magazine), ''Weekend'' (the colour supplement), ''Review'' (covers literature), ''Money'', ''Work'', ''Graduate'', ''Travel'' and ''Family''.
Though the main news section was in the large broadsheet format, the supplements were all in the half-sized tabloid format, with the exception of the glossy ''Weekend'' section which was a 290×245mm magazine and ''The Guide'' which was in a small 225×145mm format.
With the change of the main section to the Berliner format, the specialist sections are now printed as Berliner, as is a now-daily Sports section, but G2 has moved to a "magazine-sized" demi-Berliner format. A Thursday Technology section and daily science coverage in the news section replaced Life and Online. ''Weekend'' and ''The Guide'' are still in the same small formats as before the change.
Monday through Thursday, the supplements carry substantial quantities of recruitment advertising as well as editorial on their specialised topics.
★ Country Diary (natural history)
★ Notes & Queries
★ ''Whatever happened to ... '' (following up a "forgotten news story" based on reader suggestions)
★ The Digested Read, in which John Crace writes a 500-word satirical synopsis of a recently published book.
★ Ask Hadley - fashion advice from Hadley Freeman
★ Two wheels, a column about cycling written by Matt Seaton
★ ''If...''
★ ''Doonesbury''
★ ''Perry Bible Fellowship''
★ ''A Softer World''
★ ''Loomus'', by Steven Appleby (Saturday, in the Family section)
★ ''Media Tarts'' (Monday, in the Media section)
★ ''Clare in the Community'' (Wednesday, in the Society section)
★ ''Home-Clubber'' (Saturday, in the Guide section)
Editorial cartoonists Martin Rowson and Steve Bell get frequent hate mail for their treatment of controversial topics. [31].
Main articles: Guardian Unlimited
''The Guardian'' and its Sunday sibling, ''The Observer'' publish all their news online, with free access both to current news and an archive of three million stories. A third of the site's hits are for items over a month old[32]. The website also offers a free printable A4 format PDF 24-hour newspaper, G24[33] – made up of the top stories – and, for a monthly subscription, the complete newspaper in PDF format. It is the most widely read UK newspaper site[34] with more than 14.5 million users a month, compared with the second-placed The Times's 9 million users a month. This has been has been put down to its free, unrestricted access.
''The Guardian'' also has a number of talkboards that are noted for their mix of political discussion and whimsy. They were spoofed in the ''Guardian's'' own regular humorous ''Chatroom'' column in G2. The spoof column purported to be excerpts from a chatroom on permachat.co.uk, a real URL which points to ''The Guardian's talkboards.
In the 'Comment is Free' section the public is invited to join in rigorous and sometimes bad-tempered debates about political issues. The section is comprised of ''Guardian'' columns and online pieces by other contributors, many of whom end up facing heavy criticism from readers.
''The Guardian'' has also launched a dating website, ''Soulmates''[35], and is experimenting with new media, offering a free twelve part weekly Podcast series by Ricky Gervais[36]. In January 2006 Gervais' show topped the iTunes podcast chart having been downloaded by two million listeners worldwide[37], and is scheduled to be listed in the 2007 ''Guinness Book of Records'' as the most downloaded Podcast[38].
The nickname '''The Grauniad''' for the paper originated with the satirical magazine ''Private Eye''. It came about because of its reputation for frequent and sometimes unintentionally amusing typographical errors, hence the popular myth that the paper once misspelled its own name on the page one masthead as ''The Gaurdian'', though many recall the more inventive ''The Grauniad''. The very first issue of the newspaper contained a number of errors, perhaps the most notable being a notification that there would soon be some goods sold at ''atction'' instead of ''auction''. There are fewer typos in the paper since the end of hot-metal typesetting – to maintain a tradition, the daily 'Corrections and clarifications' column lists even the smallest mistakes.
Until the founding of the ''Independent'', the ''Guardian'' was Britain's only 'serious' national daily newspaper to support centrist or centre-left politics. The term "''Guardian'' reader" has been used pejoratively by those who do not agree with the paper – and self-deprecatingly by those who do. There are many stereotypes, but perhaps the most prominent is that of the highly-educated Labour-voting middle-class ''Guardian'' reader with centre-left/left-wing politics rooted in the 1960s, working in the public sector or academia, sometimes eating lentils and muesli, living in north London (especially Camden and Islington), wearing sandals, sometimes believing in alternative medicine and natural medicine though more often atheistic or non-religious and rational. It has been shown that the majority of university students in the UK read the ''Guardian''. This might be illustrated by Labour MP Kevin Hughes's largely rhetorical and ridiculous question in the House of Commons on November 19, 2001:
The Guardian's cartoon strips by Posy Simmonds during the 1980s satirised the paper's stereotype reader, relating events in the life of, among others, former nurse Wendy Weber and her polytechnic sociology lecturer husband George.
The ''Guardian's science coverage is extensive. The paper also appears to have moved away from covering alternative therapies. Its ''Weekend'' supplement featured a column by Emma Mitchell, a natural health therapist, until August 2006 and G2 was, until the relaunch, home to Edzard Ernst's weekly column on complementary medicine (Ernst is professor of complementary medicine at the Plymouth, Devon-based Peninsula Medical School, [40]), the paper carries the debunking ''Bad Science'' column[41]
column by Ben Goldacre and a quizzical column in G2 called ''The Sceptic'',[42] which looks at the evidence for popular treatments and remedies (and Ernst took an evidence-based approach to appraisal of alternative therapies in his column). As alternative and complementary medicine has become more widely accepted most of the quality dailies now feature at least one column or writer devoted to the subject.
The stereotype of the Guardian reader is, however, a persistent feature of British political discourse. Doctors have used the "doctor slang" acronym ''GROLIES'' (Guardian Reader Of Low Intelligence in Ethnic Skirt) on patient notes.[43] It must be noted, however, that ''Guardian'' readers are usually portrayed as being highly intelligent but detached and alienated from 'noumenal' concerns.
''The Guardian'', along with other British news outlets, has a tradition of spoof articles on April Fool's Day, sometimes contributed by regular advertisers such as BMW. The most elaborate of these was a travel supplement on San Serriffe, whilst an article in the ''Guardian'' dated April 1 2006 written by one Olaf Priol suggested that Chris Martin of Coldplay would be supporting the Conservatives at the next General Election and had already written a campaign song for them. Olaf Priol is an anagram of April Fool.
★ In the play ''Hobson's Choice'' Henry Horatio Hobson worries that his reputation will be in tatters after 'trespassing'. He comments that if the news were to be intercepted by the ''Manchester Guardian'' then everyone would know.
★ The 1984 Christmas special of ''Yes Minister'' shows a number of newspapers tipping Jim Hacker as the next Prime Minister. ''The Guardian'' is among them, but its name is spelt ''The Gaurdian''. In Episode 6 a group of pro-badger protesters tell Jim Hacker that the Guardian told them the area they are fighting to save has been inhabitated by badgers for generations. In fact Hacker points out jokingly the "bodgers" have lived there for "generators", satirising the Guardian's reputation for spelling errors.
★ In Episode 4 of the second series of ''Yes, Prime Minister'', Jim Hacker says:
:"I know exactly who reads the papers: ''The Daily Mirror'' is read by people who think they run the country; ''The Guardian'' is read by people who think they ought to run the country; ''The Times'' is read by people who actually do run the country; ''The Daily Mail'' is read by the wives of the people who run the country; ''The Financial Times'' is read by people who own the country; ''The Morning Star'' is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country; and ''The Daily Telegraph'' is read by people who think it is."
:Sir Humphrey: "Prime Minister, what about the people who read ''The Sun''?"
:Bernard Woolley: "''Sun'' readers don't care who runs the country, as long as she's got big tits."
The above "Yes Minister" script excerpt borrows heavily from a joke in wide circulation during the early 1970s.
★ In the ''Young Ones'' episode "Boring," Rick eagerly notes that ''The Guardian'' has an article on how to get an increased student grant. Unfortunately the paper has totally mangled the spelling of a key part of it, leaving Rick with no idea how to get the increased grant. Worse still, the misspelling happens to sound the same as a Satanic chant, so that when Neil repeats what Rick read out loud he accidentally summons a demon who tries to kill everyone there.
★ In the ''Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy'', an entire planet goes into hibernation to wait out a galactic recession, only reviving themselves when the stock market reaches a satisfactorily high level for their needs. "Arthur [Dent], a regular Guardian reader, was deeply shocked by this."
★ In the Sandy Duncan episode in the first season of ''The Muppet Show'', Statler demonstrates his extreme age by not using the post-1959 name:
:Waldorf: Statler, do you 'get' the banana sketch?
:Statler: No, I get ''The New York Times'' and ''The Manchester Guardian''.
★ In the film, ''The Bourne Ultimatum'', Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is mentioned in an article published in The Guardian and a reporter working for the newspaper itself plays a key role in the film. The newspaper's real life editor also makes a cameo appearance.
''The Guardian'' is the sponsor of two major literary awards: The Guardian First Book Award, established in 1999 as a successor to the Guardian Fiction Award which had run since 1965, and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, founded in 1967. In recent years it has also sponsored the Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye. In addition, the annual Guardian Student Media Awards, founded 1999, recognise excellence in journalism and design of British university and college student newspapers, magazines and websites.
George Orwell, in a November 1946 installment of his Tribune "As I Please" column, ranked The Guardian as the most intelligent newspaper in the country.
★ John Edward Taylor (1821–1844)
★ Jeremiah Garnett (1844–1861) (jointly with Russell Scott Taylor in 1847–1848)
★ Edward Taylor (1861–1872)
★ Charles Prestwich Scott (1872–1929)
★ Ted Scott (1929–1932)
★ William Percival Crozier (1932–1944)
★ Alfred Powell Wadsworth (1944–1956)
★ Alastair Hetherington (1956–1975)
★ Peter Preston (1975–1995)
★ Alan Rusbridger (1995–present)
''The Guardian'' and its sister newspaper ''The Observer'' also provide The Newsroom, a visitor centre in London. It contains their archives, including bound copies of old editions, a photographic library and other items such as diaries, letters and notebooks. This material may be consulted by members of the public. The Newsroom also mounts temporary exhibitions and runs an educational programme for schools. There is also an extensive ''Manchester Guardian'' archive at the University of Manchester's John Rylands Library and there is a collaboration programme between the two archives. The British Library also has a large archive of the ''Manchester Guardian'', available in online, hard copy, microform, and CD-ROM in their
British Library Newspapers collection.
★ Online Newspapers
★ Broadcast journalism
★ Newspaper
★ Internet
★ Internet radio
★ Internet television
★ Electronic paper
★ ''Guardian Unlimited''
★ ''The Guardian'' Front Page RSS feed (in XML; use a news aggregator)
★ ''Digital Guardian'' paid-for service
★ Founding of the Manchester Guardian
★ Information about The Newsroom Archive and Visitor Centre
★ Information about ''The Guardian'' Archive at John Rylands Library in Manchester
★ ''Media Guardian'': How the broadsheets brightened up
★ ''The Guardian Unlimited'' Talk Board
★ ''Independent on Sunday'' article on problems with the Berliner format change (subscription service)
★ free e-daily (Needs ''Adobe Acrobat Reader'')
★ Catalogue of the papers of journalist Hector Alastair Hetherington at the Archives Division of the London School of Economics
★ 'I'll be back one day, never fear,' trills Fred...'' – Sue Limb (as 'Dulcie Domum'), ''Weekend Guardian'', The Guardian, London, 31 March 2001
1. MORI, 2005-03-09. "Voting Intention by Newspaper Readership"
2. Tuesday's morning conference
3. Audit Bureau of Circulations Ltd - abc.org.uk
4. The Webby Awards, 2005. "9th Annual Webby Awards nominations and winners."
5. The 2006 Newspaper Awards
6. Eppy Awards, 2000. "Winners."
7. Guardian Media Group plc 2006. "Guardian Media Group 2005/6 results."
8. Guardian Newspapers Ltd & Scott Trust, 2005. "Social, ethical and environmental audit, 2005".
9. Project Syndicate
10. Disenchantment: The ''Guardian'' and Israel, Daphna Baram, , , Politico, 2003, ISBN 1-84275-119-0
11. Jonathan Aitken, 1995. "The simple sword of truth." ''The Guardian''.
12. Luke Harding and David Pallister, 1997 "He lied and lied and lied" ''The Guardian''.
13. BBC News, 1999. "Aitken pleads guilty to perjury."
14. Clare Dyer, 06 December 2000. "A challenge to the crown: now is the time for change" ''The Guardian''
15. Nicholas Watt, 07 December 2000. "Broad welcome for debate on monarchy" ''The Guardian''
16. Julie Burchill, 29 November 2003. "Good bad and ugly." ''The Guardian''.
17. 'The Guardian' at the crossroads
18. News coverage
19. Ismail Haniyeh, 6 June 2007. " 1967: Our rights have to be recognised." ''The Guardian''.
20. Ehud Olmert, 6 June 2007. " 1967: Israel cannot make peace alone." ''The Guardian''.
21. CNS News, 25 October 2004."Left-Wing UK Paper Pulls Bush Assassination Column."
22. Charlie Brooker, 24 October 2004."Screen Burn, The Guide." ''The Guardian''.
23. Dilpazier Aslam, 2005-07-13. "We rock the boat." ''The Guardian''.
24. Media Guardian, 2005-07-22. "Background: the Guardian and Dilpazier Aslam." ''The Guardian''.
25. Steve Busfield, 2005-07-22. "Dilpazier Aslam leaves Guardian." ''The Guardian''.
26. Schoolnet n.d. "Manchester Guardian."
27. Claire Cozens, 2005-09-01. "New-look Guardian launches on September 12." ''The Guardian''.
28. ''Guardian Reborn'', Guardian Unlimited.Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
29. Claire Cozens, 2006-01-13. "Telegraph sales hit all-time low." ''The Guardian''.
30. Guardian wins design award
31. Martin Rowson 25 November 2005."Drawing Fire."''The Guardian''.
32. Emily Bell, 2005-10-08. "Editor's Week." ''The Guardian''.
33. ''G24'' e-daily page
34. ''Times gains, Guardian and Telegraph drop in ABCe monthlies'', 26 July 2007.Retrieved on 2007-08-03.
35. Guardian ''Soulmates'' website.Retrieved on 2007-08-03.
36. Jason Deans, 2005-12-08. "Gervais to host Radio 2 Christmas show." ''The Guardian''.
37. Media Guardian "Comedy stars and radio DJs top the download charts." ''The Guardian''.
38. John Plunkett, 2006-02-06. "[3]." ''The Guardian''.
39. Hansard 374:54 2001-11-19.
40. Sarah Boseley, 2003-09-26 "The alternative professor." ''The Guardian''.
41. Bad Science
42. The sceptic
43. ''BBC News'', 2003-08-18. "Doctor slang is a dying art."
44. Profile, ''The Guardian''.Retrieved 2007-07-22.
45. Zorza in''The Guardian Index, 1842-1928'' Book preview, Adam Matthew Publications, Marlborough, Wiltshire.Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
46. Profile:"Pundit with a Punch", ''Time'', 7 July 1958.Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
47. ''The Legend'' at Shenton's website.Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
'''The Guardian''' is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. It is published Monday to Saturday in the Berliner format. Until 1959 it was called '''The Manchester Guardian''', which reflected its origins; the paper is rarely still referred to by this name – except in North America, where the old name is sometimes used (to distinguish it from other newspapers with similar names). The newspaper's main offices and printing centres are located in London and Manchester.
''The Guardian Weekly'', which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers. It contains articles from ''The Guardian'' and its Sunday paper, ''The Observer'', as well as reports, features and book reviews from ''The Washington Post'' and articles translated from France's ''Le Monde''.
Stance
Editorial articles in ''The Guardian'' are generally in sympathy with the middle-ground liberal to left-wing end of the political spectrum. This is reflected in the paper's readership: a MORI Poll taken between April and June 2000 showed that 80% of ''Guardian'' readers were Labour Party voters (cited in ''International Socialism'' Spring 2003, ISBN 1-898876-97-5); according to another MORI poll taken in 2004, 44% of ''Guardian'' readers vote Labour and 37% vote Liberal Democrat[1].
Format
Today ''The Guardian'' is the only British national newspaper to publish in full colour (although the edition printed in Northern Ireland still has much black-and-white content [2]); it was also the first newspaper in the UK to be printed on the Berliner size. In May 2007 ''The Guardian'' had a certified average daily circulation of 371,754 copies, as compared to sales of 894,258 for the ''Daily Telegraph'', 636,777 for ''The Times'', and 245,466 for ''The Independent''[3].
Awards
It has been awarded the ''National Newspaper of the Year'' in 1999 and 2006 by the British Press Awards, as well as being co-winner of the ''World's Best-designed Newspaper'' as awarded by the Society for News Design (2006). The ''Guardian Unlimited'' website won the Best Newspaper category two years running in the 2005 and 2006 Webby Awards, beating (in 2005) the ''New York Times'', the ''Washington Post'', the ''Wall Street Journal'' and ''Variety''[4]. It has been the winner for six years in a row of the British Press Awards for Best Electronic Daily Newspaper.[5] The site won an ''Eppy'' award from the US-based magazine ''Editor & Publisher'' in 2000 for the best-designed newspaper online service [6]. The website is known for its commentary on sporting events, particularly its over-by-over cricket commentary.
In 2007 it was ranked first in a study on transparency which analysed 25 mainstream English-language media vehicles, and which was conducted by the prestigious International Center for Media and the Public Agenda of the University of Maryland. It got a nearly perfect score.
Ownership
''The Guardian'' is part of the GMG Guardian Media Group of newspapers, radio stations, and print media including ''The Observer'' Sunday newspaper, the ''Manchester Evening News'', ''Money Observer'' financial magazine, ''The Guardian Weekly'' International newspaper, ''Guardian Monthly'' magazine, and new media - Guardian Abroad website, and ''Guardian Unlimited'', one of the most popular online news resources on the Internet. All the aforementioned are owned by The Scott Trust, a charitable foundation which aims to ensure the newspaper's editorial independence in perpetuity, maintaining its financial health to ensure it does not become vulnerable to take over by for-profit media groups, and the serious compromise of editorial independence that this often brings.
''The Guardian'' has been consistently loss-making. The National Newspaper division of GMG, which also includes ''The Observer'', reported operating losses of £49.9m in 2006, up from £18.6m in 2005.[7] The paper is therefore heavily dependent on cross-subsidisation from profitable companies within the group, including Auto Trader and the ''Manchester Evening News''.
''The Guardian's ownership by the Scott Trust is likely a factor in it being the only British national daily to conduct (since 2003) an annual social, ethical and environmental audit in which it examines, under the scrutiny of an independent external auditor, its own behaviour as a company.[8] It is also the only British daily national newspaper to employ an internal ombudsman (called the ‘readers' editor’) to handle complaints and corrections.
''The Guardian'' and its parent groups participate in Project Syndicate,[9] established by George Soros, and intervened in 1995 to save the ''Mail & Guardian'' in South Africa, but Guardian Media Group sold the majority of its shares in the ''Mail & Guardian'' in 2002.
History
Political alignment and controversies
''The Guardian's Newsroom visitor centre and archive (No 60), with an old sign with the name ''The Manchester Guardian''
The ''Manchester Guardian'' was founded in Manchester in 1821 by a group of non-conformist businessmen headed by John Edward Taylor. The prospectus announcing the new publication proclaimed that "it will zealously enforce the principles of civil and religious Liberty … it will warmly advocate the cause of Reform; it will endeavour to assist in the diffusion of just principles of Political Economy; and to support, without reference to the party from which they emanate, all serviceable measures."
Its most famous editor, C P Scott, made the ''Manchester Guardian'' into a nationally famous newspaper. He was editor for 57 years from 1872, and became its owner when he bought the paper from the estate of Taylor's son in 1907. Under Scott the paper's moderate editorial line became more radical, supporting Gladstone when the Liberals split in 1886, and opposing the Second Boer War against popular opinion.
Scott's friendship with Chaim Weizmann played a role in the Balfour Declaration, and in 1948 the ''Guardian'' was a supporter of the State of Israel. Daphna Baram tells the story of the ''Guardian's relationship with the zionist movement and Israel in the book "''Disenchantment: The Guardian and Israel''".[10]
In June 1936 ownership of the paper passed to the Scott Trust (named after the last owner, John Russell Scott, who was the first chairman of the Trust). This move ensured the paper's independence, and it was then noted for its eccentric style, its moralising and its detached attitude to its finances.
Traditionally affiliated with the centrist Liberal Party, and with a northern, non-conformist circulation base, the paper earned a national reputation and the respect of the left during the Spanish Civil War. With the pro-Liberal ''News Chronicle'', the Labour-supporting ''Daily Herald'', the Communist Party's ''Daily Worker'' and several Sunday and weekly papers, it supported the 'Republican' government against General Francisco Franco's insurgent 'nationalists'. Consistent in its anti-establishment stance, the Guardian also provided one of the few probing and dissenting voices during the 1956 Suez Crisis.
After 1959
In 1983 the paper was at the centre of a controversy surrounding documents regarding the stationing of cruise missiles in Britain that were leaked to the Guardian by civil servant Sarah Tisdall. ''The Guardian'' eventually complied with a court order to hand over the documents to the authorities, which resulted in a prison sentence for Tisdall.
In 1995, both the Granada Television programme ''World In Action'' and ''The Guardian'' were sued for libel by the then cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken, for their allegation that the Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Fahd had paid for Aitken and his wife to stay at the Hôtel Ritz in Paris, which would have amounted to accepting a bribe on Aitken's part. Aitken publicly stated he would fight with "the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play".[11] The court case proceeded, and in 1997 ''The Guardian'' produced evidence that Aitken's claim of his wife paying for the hotel stay was untrue.[12] In 1999, Aitken was jailed for perjury and perverting the course of justice.[13]
In the early 2000s the newspaper challenged the Act of Settlement 1701 and the Treason Felony Act 1848. [14][15]
During the Afghanistan and Iraq wars ''The Guardian'' attracted a significant proportion of anti-war readers as one of the mass-media outlets most critical of UK and USA military initiatives.
Despite its early support for the Zionist movement, in recent decades ''The Guardian'' has often been perceived as critical of Israel. In December 2003 journalist Julie Burchill left the paper for ''The Times'', citing this as one of the reasons for her move.[16]
In a recent controversy, the paper has been accused by Alan Dershowitz writing in the ''Jerusalem Post'' of bias and failure to print corrections of mis-statements of fact in their articles and editorials.[17] This allegation was denied by the Guardian's foreign editor, Harriet Sherwood, who says the paper aims to cover all viewpoints in the Israel-Palestine conflict.[18] On 6 June 2007 the paper commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War by giving equal space to the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers to explain their views on the conflict and its legacy. [19][20]
In August 2004, for the US presidential election, the daily ''G2'' supplement launched an experimental letter-writing campaign in Clark County, Ohio, a small county in a swing state. ''G2'' editor Ian Katz bought a voter list from the county for $25 and asked readers to write to people listed as undecided in the election and, giving them an impression of the international view and the importance of making the correct decision. There was something of a backlash to this campaign. The paper scrapped ''Operation Clark County'' on 21 October, 2004 after first publishing a column of vituperation under the headline 'Dear Limey assholes'.[1]
In October 2004 ''The Guardian'' published a humour column by Charlie Brooker in its entertainment guide, which appeared to call for the assassination of US President George W. Bush.[21] This caused some controversy and the paper was forced to issue an apology and remove the article from its website.[22]
Following the 7 July 2005 London bombings, ''The Guardian'' published an article on its comment pages by Dilpazier Aslam, a 27 year old British Muslim journalism trainee from Yorkshire.[23] Aslam was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist group, and had published a number of articles on their website. According to the paper, it did not know that Aslam was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir when he applied to become a trainee, though several staff members were informed of this once he started at the paper.[24] The Home Office has claimed the group's "ultimate aim is the establishment of an Islamic state (Caliphate), according to Hizb ut-Tahrir via non-violent means". ''The Guardian'' asked Aslam to resign his membership of the group and, when he did not do so, terminated his employment.[25]
Overall, nevertheless, the paper is generally held up as an example of good journalism and its comment and opinion pages, though dominated by centre-left writers and academics like Polly Toynbee, allow significant space for right of centre voices such as Simon Jenkins.
Format and distribution
The first edition was published on May 5, 1821,[26] at which time the ''Guardian'' was a weekly, published on Saturdays and costing 7d.; the stamp duty on newspapers (4d. per sheet) forced the price up so high that it was uneconomic to publish more frequently. When the stamp duty was cut in 1836 the ''Guardian'' added a Wednesday edition; with the abolition of the tax in 1855 it became a daily paper costing 2d.
In 1952 the paper took the step of printing news on the front page, replacing the adverts that had hitherto filled that space. Then-editor A. P. Wadsworth wrote: "It is not a thing I like myself, but it seems to be accepted by all the newspaper pundits that it is preferable to be in fashion."
''The Guardian's offices in London
In 1959 the paper dropped "Manchester" from its title, becoming simply ''The Guardian'', and in 1964 it moved to London, losing some of its regional agenda but continuing to be heavily subsidised by sales of the less intellectual but much more profitable ''Manchester Evening News''. The financial position remained extremely poor into the 1970s; at one time it was in merger talks with ''The Times''. The paper consolidated its centre-left stance during the 1970s and 1980s but was both shocked and revitalised by the launch of ''The Independent'' in 1986 which competed for a similar readership and provoked the entire broadsheet industry into a fight for circulation.
On 12 February 1988 ''The Guardian'' had a significant redesign; as well as improving the quality of its printers' ink, it also changed its masthead to the now familiar juxtaposition of an italic Garamond "''The''", with a bold Helvetica "Guardian", which remained in use until the 2005 redesign.
In 1992 it relaunched its features section as G2, a tabloid-format supplement. This innovation was widely copied by the other "quality" broadsheets, and ultimately led to the rise of "compact" papers and ''The Guardian's move to the Berliner format. In 1993 the paper declined to participate in the broadsheet 'price war' started by Rupert Murdoch's ''The Times''. In June 1993, ''The Guardian'' bought ''The Observer'' from Lonrho, thus gaining a serious Sunday newspaper partner with similar political views.
Its international weekly edition is now titled ''The Guardian Weekly'', though it retained the title ''Manchester Guardian Weekly'' for some years after the home edition had moved to London. It includes sections from a number of other internationally significant newspapers of a somewhat left-of-centre inclination, including ''Le Monde''. The Guardian Weekly is also linked to a website for expatriates Guardian Abroad.
''g24'' is a constantly-updated electronic newspaper available free of charge.[2] It is downloadable as a PDF file. The contents come from ''The Guardian'' and its Sunday sibling ''The Observer''.
Moving to the Berliner paper format
The last broadsheet edition of ''The Guardian'', along with a preview of the Berliner format and its competitor ''The Independent'', all from 2005-09-10. A sheet of A4 paper is shown for scale.
The advantage that ''The Guardian'' saw in the Berliner format was that though it is only a little wider than a tabloid, and is thus equally easy to read on public transport, its greater height gives more flexibility in page design. The new presses mean that printing can go right across the 'gutter', the strip down the middle of the centre page, allowing the paper to print striking double page pictures. The new presses also made the paper the first UK national able to print in full colour on every page.
The format switch was accompanied by a comprehensive redesign of the paper's look. On Friday 9 September 2005 the newspaper unveiled its new look front page, which débuted on Monday 12 September 2005. Designed by Mark Porter, the new look includes a new masthead for the newspaper, its first since 1988. A typeface family called Guardian Egyptian, designed by Paul Barnes (designer) and Christian Schwartz, was created for the new design. No other typeface is used anywhere in the paper - all stylistic variations are based on various forms of Guardian Egyptian.
The switch cost Guardian Newspapers £80 million and involved setting up new printing presses in east London and Manchester. This was because prior to the Guardian's move, no printing presses in the UK could produce newspapers in the Berliner format. There were additional complications as one of the Guardian's presses was part-owned by ''Telegraph Newspapers'' and ''Express Newspapers'', and it was contracted to use the plant until 2009. Another press was shared with the Guardian Media Group's north western tabloid local papers, which did not wish to switch to the Berliner format.
The new format was generally well received by ''Guardian'' readers, who were asked to feedback on the changes. The only controversy was over the dropping of the ''Doonesbury'' cartoon strip. ''The Guardian'' reported thousands of calls and emails complaining about its loss and within 24 hours, the decision was reversed and the strip was reinstated the following week. ''G2'' section editor Ian Katz, who was responsible for dropping it, apologised in the editors' blog saying, "I'm sorry, once again, that I made you - and the hundreds of fellow fans who have called our helpline or mailed our comments' address - so cross"[28] Some readers are however dissatisfied as the earlier deadline needed for the all-colour sports section has meant that coverage of late-finishing evening football matches is less satisfactory than before the redesign in the editions supplied to some parts of the country.
The investment was rewarded with a circulation rise. In December 2005, the average daily sale stood at 380,693, nearly 6% higher than the figure for December 2004.[29] In 2006, the US-based Society for News Design chose ''The Guardian'' and Polish daily ''Rzeczpospolita'' as the world's best-designed newspapers – from among 389 entries from 44 countries.[30]
Supplements and features
The Saturday edition of ''The Guardian'' includes some sections of varying sizes.
''The Guardian'' from the 21st January 2007 including the G2 supplement
On each weekday ''The Guardian'' comes with the G2 supplement containing feature articles, columns, television and radio listings, and the quick crossword. Since the change to the Berliner format, there is a separate daily Sport section. Other regular supplements during the week include:
; Monday : ''MediaGuardian, Office Hours''
; Tuesday : ''EducationGuardian''
; Wednesday : ''SocietyGuardian'' (covers the British public sector and related issues)
; Thursday : ''TechnologyGuardian''
; Friday : ''Film & Music''
; Saturday : ''The Guide'' (a weekly listings magazine), ''Weekend'' (the colour supplement), ''Review'' (covers literature), ''Money'', ''Work'', ''Graduate'', ''Travel'' and ''Family''.
Though the main news section was in the large broadsheet format, the supplements were all in the half-sized tabloid format, with the exception of the glossy ''Weekend'' section which was a 290×245mm magazine and ''The Guide'' which was in a small 225×145mm format.
With the change of the main section to the Berliner format, the specialist sections are now printed as Berliner, as is a now-daily Sports section, but G2 has moved to a "magazine-sized" demi-Berliner format. A Thursday Technology section and daily science coverage in the news section replaced Life and Online. ''Weekend'' and ''The Guide'' are still in the same small formats as before the change.
Monday through Thursday, the supplements carry substantial quantities of recruitment advertising as well as editorial on their specialised topics.
Regular columns
★ Country Diary (natural history)
★ Notes & Queries
★ ''Whatever happened to ... '' (following up a "forgotten news story" based on reader suggestions)
★ The Digested Read, in which John Crace writes a 500-word satirical synopsis of a recently published book.
★ Ask Hadley - fashion advice from Hadley Freeman
★ Two wheels, a column about cycling written by Matt Seaton
Regular cartoon strips
★ ''If...''
★ ''Doonesbury''
★ ''Perry Bible Fellowship''
★ ''A Softer World''
★ ''Loomus'', by Steven Appleby (Saturday, in the Family section)
★ ''Media Tarts'' (Monday, in the Media section)
★ ''Clare in the Community'' (Wednesday, in the Society section)
★ ''Home-Clubber'' (Saturday, in the Guide section)
Editorial cartoonists Martin Rowson and Steve Bell get frequent hate mail for their treatment of controversial topics. [31].
Online media
Main articles: Guardian Unlimited
''The Guardian'' and its Sunday sibling, ''The Observer'' publish all their news online, with free access both to current news and an archive of three million stories. A third of the site's hits are for items over a month old[32]. The website also offers a free printable A4 format PDF 24-hour newspaper, G24[33] – made up of the top stories – and, for a monthly subscription, the complete newspaper in PDF format. It is the most widely read UK newspaper site[34] with more than 14.5 million users a month, compared with the second-placed The Times's 9 million users a month. This has been has been put down to its free, unrestricted access.
''The Guardian'' also has a number of talkboards that are noted for their mix of political discussion and whimsy. They were spoofed in the ''Guardian's'' own regular humorous ''Chatroom'' column in G2. The spoof column purported to be excerpts from a chatroom on permachat.co.uk, a real URL which points to ''The Guardian's talkboards.
In the 'Comment is Free' section the public is invited to join in rigorous and sometimes bad-tempered debates about political issues. The section is comprised of ''Guardian'' columns and online pieces by other contributors, many of whom end up facing heavy criticism from readers.
''The Guardian'' has also launched a dating website, ''Soulmates''[35], and is experimenting with new media, offering a free twelve part weekly Podcast series by Ricky Gervais[36]. In January 2006 Gervais' show topped the iTunes podcast chart having been downloaded by two million listeners worldwide[37], and is scheduled to be listed in the 2007 ''Guinness Book of Records'' as the most downloaded Podcast[38].
''The Guardian'' in popular culture
The nickname '''The Grauniad''' for the paper originated with the satirical magazine ''Private Eye''. It came about because of its reputation for frequent and sometimes unintentionally amusing typographical errors, hence the popular myth that the paper once misspelled its own name on the page one masthead as ''The Gaurdian'', though many recall the more inventive ''The Grauniad''. The very first issue of the newspaper contained a number of errors, perhaps the most notable being a notification that there would soon be some goods sold at ''atction'' instead of ''auction''. There are fewer typos in the paper since the end of hot-metal typesetting – to maintain a tradition, the daily 'Corrections and clarifications' column lists even the smallest mistakes.
Until the founding of the ''Independent'', the ''Guardian'' was Britain's only 'serious' national daily newspaper to support centrist or centre-left politics. The term "''Guardian'' reader" has been used pejoratively by those who do not agree with the paper – and self-deprecatingly by those who do. There are many stereotypes, but perhaps the most prominent is that of the highly-educated Labour-voting middle-class ''Guardian'' reader with centre-left/left-wing politics rooted in the 1960s, working in the public sector or academia, sometimes eating lentils and muesli, living in north London (especially Camden and Islington), wearing sandals, sometimes believing in alternative medicine and natural medicine though more often atheistic or non-religious and rational. It has been shown that the majority of university students in the UK read the ''Guardian''. This might be illustrated by Labour MP Kevin Hughes's largely rhetorical and ridiculous question in the House of Commons on November 19, 2001:
"Does my right hon. Friend find it bizarre — as I do — that the yoghurt- and muesli-eating, ''Guardian''-reading fraternity are only too happy to protect the human rights of people engaged in terrorist acts, but never once do they talk about the human rights of those who are affected by them?"[39]
The Guardian's cartoon strips by Posy Simmonds during the 1980s satirised the paper's stereotype reader, relating events in the life of, among others, former nurse Wendy Weber and her polytechnic sociology lecturer husband George.
The ''Guardian's science coverage is extensive. The paper also appears to have moved away from covering alternative therapies. Its ''Weekend'' supplement featured a column by Emma Mitchell, a natural health therapist, until August 2006 and G2 was, until the relaunch, home to Edzard Ernst's weekly column on complementary medicine (Ernst is professor of complementary medicine at the Plymouth, Devon-based Peninsula Medical School, [40]), the paper carries the debunking ''Bad Science'' column[41]
column by Ben Goldacre and a quizzical column in G2 called ''The Sceptic'',[42] which looks at the evidence for popular treatments and remedies (and Ernst took an evidence-based approach to appraisal of alternative therapies in his column). As alternative and complementary medicine has become more widely accepted most of the quality dailies now feature at least one column or writer devoted to the subject.
The stereotype of the Guardian reader is, however, a persistent feature of British political discourse. Doctors have used the "doctor slang" acronym ''GROLIES'' (Guardian Reader Of Low Intelligence in Ethnic Skirt) on patient notes.[43] It must be noted, however, that ''Guardian'' readers are usually portrayed as being highly intelligent but detached and alienated from 'noumenal' concerns.
''The Guardian'', along with other British news outlets, has a tradition of spoof articles on April Fool's Day, sometimes contributed by regular advertisers such as BMW. The most elaborate of these was a travel supplement on San Serriffe, whilst an article in the ''Guardian'' dated April 1 2006 written by one Olaf Priol suggested that Chris Martin of Coldplay would be supporting the Conservatives at the next General Election and had already written a campaign song for them. Olaf Priol is an anagram of April Fool.
References in fiction
★ In the play ''Hobson's Choice'' Henry Horatio Hobson worries that his reputation will be in tatters after 'trespassing'. He comments that if the news were to be intercepted by the ''Manchester Guardian'' then everyone would know.
★ The 1984 Christmas special of ''Yes Minister'' shows a number of newspapers tipping Jim Hacker as the next Prime Minister. ''The Guardian'' is among them, but its name is spelt ''The Gaurdian''. In Episode 6 a group of pro-badger protesters tell Jim Hacker that the Guardian told them the area they are fighting to save has been inhabitated by badgers for generations. In fact Hacker points out jokingly the "bodgers" have lived there for "generators", satirising the Guardian's reputation for spelling errors.
★ In Episode 4 of the second series of ''Yes, Prime Minister'', Jim Hacker says:
:"I know exactly who reads the papers: ''The Daily Mirror'' is read by people who think they run the country; ''The Guardian'' is read by people who think they ought to run the country; ''The Times'' is read by people who actually do run the country; ''The Daily Mail'' is read by the wives of the people who run the country; ''The Financial Times'' is read by people who own the country; ''The Morning Star'' is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country; and ''The Daily Telegraph'' is read by people who think it is."
:Sir Humphrey: "Prime Minister, what about the people who read ''The Sun''?"
:Bernard Woolley: "''Sun'' readers don't care who runs the country, as long as she's got big tits."
The above "Yes Minister" script excerpt borrows heavily from a joke in wide circulation during the early 1970s.
★ In the ''Young Ones'' episode "Boring," Rick eagerly notes that ''The Guardian'' has an article on how to get an increased student grant. Unfortunately the paper has totally mangled the spelling of a key part of it, leaving Rick with no idea how to get the increased grant. Worse still, the misspelling happens to sound the same as a Satanic chant, so that when Neil repeats what Rick read out loud he accidentally summons a demon who tries to kill everyone there.
★ In the ''Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy'', an entire planet goes into hibernation to wait out a galactic recession, only reviving themselves when the stock market reaches a satisfactorily high level for their needs. "Arthur [Dent], a regular Guardian reader, was deeply shocked by this."
★ In the Sandy Duncan episode in the first season of ''The Muppet Show'', Statler demonstrates his extreme age by not using the post-1959 name:
:Waldorf: Statler, do you 'get' the banana sketch?
:Statler: No, I get ''The New York Times'' and ''The Manchester Guardian''.
★ In the film, ''The Bourne Ultimatum'', Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is mentioned in an article published in The Guardian and a reporter working for the newspaper itself plays a key role in the film. The newspaper's real life editor also makes a cameo appearance.
Literary and media awards
''The Guardian'' is the sponsor of two major literary awards: The Guardian First Book Award, established in 1999 as a successor to the Guardian Fiction Award which had run since 1965, and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, founded in 1967. In recent years it has also sponsored the Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye. In addition, the annual Guardian Student Media Awards, founded 1999, recognise excellence in journalism and design of British university and college student newspapers, magazines and websites.
George Orwell, in a November 1946 installment of his Tribune "As I Please" column, ranked The Guardian as the most intelligent newspaper in the country.
Editors
★ John Edward Taylor (1821–1844)
★ Jeremiah Garnett (1844–1861) (jointly with Russell Scott Taylor in 1847–1848)
★ Edward Taylor (1861–1872)
★ Charles Prestwich Scott (1872–1929)
★ Ted Scott (1929–1932)
★ William Percival Crozier (1932–1944)
★ Alfred Powell Wadsworth (1944–1956)
★ Alastair Hetherington (1956–1975)
★ Peter Preston (1975–1995)
★ Alan Rusbridger (1995–present)
Notable regular contributors (past and present)
The Newsroom archive
''The Guardian'' and its sister newspaper ''The Observer'' also provide The Newsroom, a visitor centre in London. It contains their archives, including bound copies of old editions, a photographic library and other items such as diaries, letters and notebooks. This material may be consulted by members of the public. The Newsroom also mounts temporary exhibitions and runs an educational programme for schools. There is also an extensive ''Manchester Guardian'' archive at the University of Manchester's John Rylands Library and there is a collaboration programme between the two archives. The British Library also has a large archive of the ''Manchester Guardian'', available in online, hard copy, microform, and CD-ROM in their
British Library Newspapers collection.
See also
★ Online Newspapers
★ Broadcast journalism
★ Newspaper
★ Internet
★ Internet radio
★ Internet television
★ Electronic paper
External links
★ ''Guardian Unlimited''
★ ''The Guardian'' Front Page RSS feed (in XML; use a news aggregator)
★ ''Digital Guardian'' paid-for service
★ Founding of the Manchester Guardian
★ Information about The Newsroom Archive and Visitor Centre
★ Information about ''The Guardian'' Archive at John Rylands Library in Manchester
★ ''Media Guardian'': How the broadsheets brightened up
★ ''The Guardian Unlimited'' Talk Board
★ ''Independent on Sunday'' article on problems with the Berliner format change (subscription service)
★ free e-daily (Needs ''Adobe Acrobat Reader'')
★ Catalogue of the papers of journalist Hector Alastair Hetherington at the Archives Division of the London School of Economics
★ 'I'll be back one day, never fear,' trills Fred...'' – Sue Limb (as 'Dulcie Domum'), ''Weekend Guardian'', The Guardian, London, 31 March 2001
References
1. MORI, 2005-03-09. "Voting Intention by Newspaper Readership"
2. Tuesday's morning conference
3. Audit Bureau of Circulations Ltd - abc.org.uk
4. The Webby Awards, 2005. "9th Annual Webby Awards nominations and winners."
5. The 2006 Newspaper Awards
6. Eppy Awards, 2000. "Winners."
7. Guardian Media Group plc 2006. "Guardian Media Group 2005/6 results."
8. Guardian Newspapers Ltd & Scott Trust, 2005. "Social, ethical and environmental audit, 2005".
9. Project Syndicate
10. Disenchantment: The ''Guardian'' and Israel, Daphna Baram, , , Politico, 2003, ISBN 1-84275-119-0
11. Jonathan Aitken, 1995. "The simple sword of truth." ''The Guardian''.
12. Luke Harding and David Pallister, 1997 "He lied and lied and lied" ''The Guardian''.
13. BBC News, 1999. "Aitken pleads guilty to perjury."
14. Clare Dyer, 06 December 2000. "A challenge to the crown: now is the time for change" ''The Guardian''
15. Nicholas Watt, 07 December 2000. "Broad welcome for debate on monarchy" ''The Guardian''
16. Julie Burchill, 29 November 2003. "Good bad and ugly." ''The Guardian''.
17. 'The Guardian' at the crossroads
18. News coverage
19. Ismail Haniyeh, 6 June 2007. " 1967: Our rights have to be recognised." ''The Guardian''.
20. Ehud Olmert, 6 June 2007. " 1967: Israel cannot make peace alone." ''The Guardian''.
21. CNS News, 25 October 2004."Left-Wing UK Paper Pulls Bush Assassination Column."
22. Charlie Brooker, 24 October 2004."Screen Burn, The Guide." ''The Guardian''.
23. Dilpazier Aslam, 2005-07-13. "We rock the boat." ''The Guardian''.
24. Media Guardian, 2005-07-22. "Background: the Guardian and Dilpazier Aslam." ''The Guardian''.
25. Steve Busfield, 2005-07-22. "Dilpazier Aslam leaves Guardian." ''The Guardian''.
26. Schoolnet n.d. "Manchester Guardian."
27. Claire Cozens, 2005-09-01. "New-look Guardian launches on September 12." ''The Guardian''.
28. ''Guardian Reborn'', Guardian Unlimited.Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
29. Claire Cozens, 2006-01-13. "Telegraph sales hit all-time low." ''The Guardian''.
30. Guardian wins design award
31. Martin Rowson 25 November 2005."Drawing Fire."''The Guardian''.
32. Emily Bell, 2005-10-08. "Editor's Week." ''The Guardian''.
33. ''G24'' e-daily page
34. ''Times gains, Guardian and Telegraph drop in ABCe monthlies'', 26 July 2007.Retrieved on 2007-08-03.
35. Guardian ''Soulmates'' website.Retrieved on 2007-08-03.
36. Jason Deans, 2005-12-08. "Gervais to host Radio 2 Christmas show." ''The Guardian''.
37. Media Guardian "Comedy stars and radio DJs top the download charts." ''The Guardian''.
38. John Plunkett, 2006-02-06. "[3]." ''The Guardian''.
39. Hansard 374:54 2001-11-19.
40. Sarah Boseley, 2003-09-26 "The alternative professor." ''The Guardian''.
41. Bad Science
42. The sceptic
43. ''BBC News'', 2003-08-18. "Doctor slang is a dying art."
44. Profile, ''The Guardian''.Retrieved 2007-07-22.
45. Zorza in''The Guardian Index, 1842-1928'' Book preview, Adam Matthew Publications, Marlborough, Wiltshire.Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
46. Profile:"Pundit with a Punch", ''Time'', 7 July 1958.Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
47. ''The Legend'' at Shenton's website.Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.
psst.. try this: add to faves
