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{{Infobox Newspaper |name = |image = |caption = Typical
Guardian front page |type = Daily newspaper ] |ceased publication = |price = Pound sterling0.80 (Monday-Friday)
Pound sterling1.50 (Saturday) |foundation = 1821 |owners = Guardian Media Group ] |political = Centre-Left ],
London ] |website = Guardian Unlimited |-->
The Guardian is a
United Kingdom newspaper owned by the
Guardian Media Group. It is published Monday to Saturday in the
Berliner (format) 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
Guardian). 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 (journal) Spring 2003, ISBN 1-898876-97-5); according to another
MORI poll taken in 2004, 44% of
Guardian readers vote
Labour Party (UK) and 37% vote Liberal Democrats (UK)MORI, 2005-03-09. " Voting Intention by Newspaper Readership".
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 {{cite web]| accessdate = 2007-02-11-->); it was also the first newspaper in the UK to be printed on the Berliner (format) size.
The Guardian had a certified average newspaper circulation of 355,750 copies as of August 2007 - a drop of 5.94% on the first month of the year; as compared to sales of 887,664 for the
Daily Telegraph, 638,820 for
The Times, and 239,834 for
The IndependentAudit Bureau of Circulations Ltd - abc.org.uk.
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
The Wall Street Journal and
Variety (magazine)The Webby Awards, 2005. " 9th Annual Webby Awards nominations and winners.". It has been the winner for six years in a row of the British Press Awards for Best Electronic Daily Newspaper. The site won an
Editor & Publisher award from the US-based magazine
Editor & Publisher in 2000 for the best-designed newspaper online service Eppy Awards, 2000. " Winners.". 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
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.Guardian Media Group plc 2006. " Guardian Media Group 2005/6 results." 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.Guardian Newspapers Ltd & Scott Trust, 2005. " Social, ethical and environmental audit, 2005". 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, 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
Manchester Guardian was founded in Manchester in 1821 by a group of non-conformist businessmen headed by
John E. 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, Charles Prestwich 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, 1917, 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".
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 (UK), 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 Party (UK)
News Chronicle, the Labour Party (UK)-supporting
Daily Herald, the
Communist Party of Great Britain'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 Paris 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".Jonathan Aitken, 1995. " The simple sword of truth."
The Guardian. 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.Luke Harding and David Pallister, 1997 " He lied and lied and lied"
The Guardian. In 1999, Aitken was jailed for perjury and
perverting the course of justice.BBC News, 1999. " Aitken pleads guilty to perjury."
In the early 2000s the newspaper challenged the
Act of Settlement 1701 and the
Treason Felony Act 1848. Clare Dyer, 06 December 2000. " A challenge to the crown: now is the time for change"
The GuardianNicholas Watt, 07 December 2000. " Broad welcome for debate on monarchy"
The GuardianDuring the War in Afghanistan (2001 – present) and
2003 invasion of 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.Julie Burchill, 29 November 2003. " Good bad and ugly."
The Guardian.In a recent controversy, the paper has been accused by Harvard lawyer
Alan Dershowitz of bias and an unwillngness to correct what he deemed a mis-statement of fact. 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. 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. Ismail Haniyeh, 6 June 2007. " 1967: Our rights have to be recognised."
The Guardian.Ehud Olmert, 6 June 2007. " 1967: Israel cannot make peace alone."
The Guardian.
In August 2004, for the
US presidential election, 2004, the daily
G2 supplement launched an experimental letter-writing campaign in Clark County, Ohio,
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'.
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.CNS News, 25 October 2004." Left-Wing UK Paper Pulls Bush Assassination Column." This caused some controversy and the paper was forced to issue an apology and remove the article from its website.Charlie Brooker, 24 October 2004." Screen Burn, The Guide."
The Guardian.
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.Dilpazier Aslam, 2005-07-13. " We rock the boat."
The Guardian. 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.Media Guardian, 2005-07-22. " Background: the Guardian and Dilpazier Aslam."
The Guardian. 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.Steve Busfield, 2005-07-22. " Dilpazier Aslam leaves Guardian."
The Guardian.
The paper's comment and opinion pages, though dominated by centre-left writers and academics like Polly Toynbee, allow some space for right of centre voices such as
Simon Jenkins.
Format and distribution
The first edition was published on May 5,
1821,Schoolnet n.d. " Manchester Guardian." at which time the
Guardian was a weekly, published on Saturdays and costing 7
penny.; the stamp duty on newspapers (4penny. 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 type 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. It is downloadable as a Portable Document Format file. The contents come from
The Guardian and its Sunday sibling
The Observer.
Moving to the Berliner paper format
In 2004,
The Guardian announced plans to change to a "
Berliner (format)" or "midi (newspaper)" 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.Claire Cozens, 2005-09-01. " New-look Guardian launches on September 12."
The Guardian. 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 (publishing) 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
The Daily Telegraph and
The Daily Express, 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"
Guardian Reborn, Guardian Unlimited.Retrieved on 2007-07-22. 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.Claire Cozens, 2006-01-13. " Telegraph sales hit all-time low."
The Guardian. In 2006, the US-based Society for News Design chose
The Guardian and Polish daily
Rzeczpospolita (newspaper) as the world's best-designed newspapers – from among 389 entries from 44 countries.
Supplements and features
{{sidebar|
Current columnists
--> 2007 including the G2 supplementOn 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.
On Monday to 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 (writer) 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
Editorial cartoonists Martin Rowson and Steve Bell (cartoonist) get frequent hate mail for their treatment of controversial topics. Martin Rowson 25 November 2005." Drawing Fire."
The Guardian..
Online media
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 oldEmily Bell, 2005-10-08. " Editor's Week."
The Guardian.. The website also offers a free printable A4 format
PDF 24-hour newspaper, G24
G24 e-daily page – 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
Times gains, Guardian and Telegraph drop in ABCe monthlies, 26 July 2007.Retrieved on 2007-08-03. 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 Guardian Unlimited Talk 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 Guardian
Soulmates website.Retrieved on 2007-08-03., and is experimenting with new media, offering a free twelve part weekly Podcast series by
Ricky GervaisJason Deans, 2005-12-08. " Gervais to host
BBC Radio 2 Christmas show]."
The Guardian.. In January 2006 Gervais' show topped the iTunes podcast chart having been downloaded by two million listeners worldwideMedia Guardian " Comedy stars and radio DJs top the download charts."
The Guardian., and is scheduled to be listed in the 2007
Guinness Book of Records as the most downloaded PodcastJohn Plunkett, 2006-02-06. "."
The Guardian..
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
London Borough of Camden and Islington), wearing
Sandal (footwear), 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 Party (UK) Member of Parliament
Kevin Hughes's largely rhetorical question in the
British 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 terrorism acts, but never once do they talk about the human rights of those who are affected by them?" Hansard 374:54 2001-11-19.
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 weekly column on complementary medicine (Ernst is professor of complementary medicine at the Plymouth,
Devon-based
Medical school (United Kingdom), Sarah Boseley, 2003-09-26 " The alternative professor."
The Guardian.), the paper carries the debunking
Bad Science column{{cite web| url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/| title = Bad Science| publisher = The Guardian| accessdate = 2007-02-10-->column by Ben Goldacre and a quizzical column in G2 called
The Sceptic,{{cite web] 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.
Physicians have used the "doctor slang" acronym
GROLIES (Guardian Reader Of Low Intelligence in Ethnic Skirt) on patient notes.
BBC News, 2003-08-18. " Doctor slang is a dying art." 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 Parody 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 Conservative Party (UK) 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 including The Guardian. In Episode 6 a group of pro-badger protesters tell James 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 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
USSR; and
The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is."
Humphrey Appleby: "Prime Minister, what about the people who read
The Sun (newspaper)?"
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 The Young Ones (TV series) 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 , 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:
Statler & Waldorf: Statler, do you 'get' the banana sketch?
Statler: No, I get
The New York Times and
The Manchester Guardian.
- In the 2006 film "American Dreamz", the US president played by Dennis Quaid is known for not reading the papers, until he starts reading the 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.
The annual Guardian Student Media Awards, founded in 1999, recognise excellence in journalism and design of British university and college
student newspapers, magazines and websites.
In memory of Paul Foot, who died in 2004,
The Guardian and
Private Eye jointly set up the "Paul Foot Award", with an annual £10,000 prize fund, for investigative/campaigning journalism. The Paul Foot Award for campaigning journalism John Sweeney (journalist) of the
Daily Mail won the first prize of £5,000 in 2005, and David Harrison picked up the 2006 award for his investigation into sex trafficking in Eastern Europe published in
The Sunday Telegraph.
From a "long list" of 17 entries for the 2007 award, the seven judges – Brian McArthur (Chair),
Ian Hislop,
Alan Rusbridger, Bill Hagerty, Clare Fermont,
Jeremy Dear and
Richard Ingrams –
shortlisted seven nominations:
Phil Baty, The Times Higher Education Supplement
Paul Keilthy, Camden New Journal
David Leigh and Rob Evans, The Guardian
Rob Waugh, Yorkshire Post
The Star (newspaper)
Richard Brooks, Private Eye and
Deborah Wain, Doncaster Free Press The Paul Foot Award for Campaigning Journalism - 2007 Short List
The 2007 "Paul Foot Award" was announced at the Media and Spin Bar,
Millbank Tower on Monday, 15 October 2007. The top prize of £5,000 was shared by Deborah Wain,
Doncaster Free Press and by David Leigh and Rob Evans,
The Guardian. The remaining five nominees – Phil Baty, Richard Brooks, Paul Keilthy, Rob Waugh and free magazine,
The Salford Star – were each awarded a £1,000 prize. Foot award winners keep investigative journalism light burning bright
Editors
Notable regular contributors (past and present)
{|width=100%|-valign=top|width=25%|
Columnists
|width=25%|
|width=25%|
|width=25%|
Cartoonists
- David Austin (cartoonist)
- Steve Bell (cartoonist)
- Joe Berger (illustrator)
- Berkeley Breathed
- Clarke
{{Infobox Newspaper |name = |image = |caption = Typical Guardian front page |type = Daily newspaper ] |ceased publication = |price = Pound sterling0.80 (Monday-Friday)Pound sterling1.50 (Saturday) |foundation = 1821 |owners = Guardian Media Group ] |political = Centre-Left ], London ] |website = Guardian Unlimited |-->The Guardian is a United Kingdom newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. It is published Monday to Saturday in the Berliner (format) 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 Guardian). 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 (journal) Spring 2003, ISBN 1-898876-97-5); according to another MORI poll taken in 2004, 44% of Guardian readers vote Labour Party (UK) and 37% vote Liberal Democrats (UK)MORI, 2005-03-09. " Voting Intention by Newspaper Readership".
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 {{cite web]| accessdate = 2007-02-11-->); it was also the first newspaper in the UK to be printed on the Berliner (format) size. The Guardian had a certified average newspaper circulation of 355,750 copies as of August 2007 - a drop of 5.94% on the first month of the year; as compared to sales of 887,664 for the Daily Telegraph, 638,820 for The Times, and 239,834 for The IndependentAudit Bureau of Circulations Ltd - abc.org.uk.
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 The Wall Street Journal and Variety (magazine)The Webby Awards, 2005. " 9th Annual Webby Awards nominations and winners.". It has been the winner for six years in a row of the British Press Awards for Best Electronic Daily Newspaper. The site won an Editor & Publisher award from the US-based magazine Editor & Publisher in 2000 for the best-designed newspaper online service Eppy Awards, 2000. " Winners.". 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 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.Guardian Media Group plc 2006. " Guardian Media Group 2005/6 results." 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.Guardian Newspapers Ltd & Scott Trust, 2005. " Social, ethical and environmental audit, 2005". 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, 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 Manchester Guardian was founded in Manchester in 1821 by a group of non-conformist businessmen headed by John E. 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, Charles Prestwich 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, 1917, 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".
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 (UK), 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 Party (UK) News Chronicle, the Labour Party (UK)-supporting Daily Herald, the Communist Party of Great Britain'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 Paris 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".Jonathan Aitken, 1995. " The simple sword of truth." The Guardian. 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.Luke Harding and David Pallister, 1997 " He lied and lied and lied" The Guardian. In 1999, Aitken was jailed for perjury and perverting the course of justice.BBC News, 1999. " Aitken pleads guilty to perjury."
In the early 2000s the newspaper challenged the Act of Settlement 1701 and the Treason Felony Act 1848. Clare Dyer, 06 December 2000. " A challenge to the crown: now is the time for change" The GuardianNicholas Watt, 07 December 2000. " Broad welcome for debate on monarchy" The Guardian
During the War in Afghanistan (2001 – present) and 2003 invasion of 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.Julie Burchill, 29 November 2003. " Good bad and ugly." The Guardian.In a recent controversy, the paper has been accused by Harvard lawyer Alan Dershowitz of bias and an unwillngness to correct what he deemed a mis-statement of fact. 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. 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. Ismail Haniyeh, 6 June 2007. " 1967: Our rights have to be recognised." The Guardian.Ehud Olmert, 6 June 2007. " 1967: Israel cannot make peace alone." The Guardian.
In August 2004, for the US presidential election, 2004, the daily G2 supplement launched an experimental letter-writing campaign in Clark County, Ohio, 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'.
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.CNS News, 25 October 2004." Left-Wing UK Paper Pulls Bush Assassination Column." This caused some controversy and the paper was forced to issue an apology and remove the article from its website.Charlie Brooker, 24 October 2004." Screen Burn, The Guide." The Guardian.
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.Dilpazier Aslam, 2005-07-13. " We rock the boat." The Guardian. 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.Media Guardian, 2005-07-22. " Background: the Guardian and Dilpazier Aslam." The Guardian. 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.Steve Busfield, 2005-07-22. " Dilpazier Aslam leaves Guardian." The Guardian.
The paper's comment and opinion pages, though dominated by centre-left writers and academics like Polly Toynbee, allow some space for right of centre voices such as Simon Jenkins.
Format and distribution
The first edition was published on May 5, 1821,Schoolnet n.d. " Manchester Guardian." at which time the Guardian was a weekly, published on Saturdays and costing 7penny.; the stamp duty on newspapers (4penny. 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 type 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. It is downloadable as a Portable Document Format file. The contents come from The Guardian and its Sunday sibling The Observer.
Moving to the Berliner paper format
In 2004, The Guardian announced plans to change to a "Berliner (format)" or "midi (newspaper)" 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.Claire Cozens, 2005-09-01. " New-look Guardian launches on September 12." The Guardian. 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 (publishing) 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 The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Express, 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" Guardian Reborn, Guardian Unlimited.Retrieved on 2007-07-22. 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.Claire Cozens, 2006-01-13. " Telegraph sales hit all-time low." The Guardian. In 2006, the US-based Society for News Design chose The Guardian and Polish daily Rzeczpospolita (newspaper) as the world's best-designed newspapers – from among 389 entries from 44 countries.
Supplements and features
{{sidebar|Current columnists
--> 2007 including the G2 supplementOn 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.
On Monday to 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 (writer) 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... (comic)
- 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)
- Modern Toss (Saturday, in the Guide section)
- The Pitchers, by Berger & Wyse (Friday, in the Film and Music section)
Editorial cartoonists Martin Rowson and Steve Bell (cartoonist) get frequent hate mail for their treatment of controversial topics. Martin Rowson 25 November 2005." Drawing Fire."The Guardian..
Online media
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 oldEmily Bell, 2005-10-08. " Editor's Week." The Guardian.. The website also offers a free printable A4 format PDF 24-hour newspaper, G24 G24 e-daily page – 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 Times gains, Guardian and Telegraph drop in ABCe monthlies, 26 July 2007.Retrieved on 2007-08-03. 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 Guardian Unlimited Talk 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 Guardian Soulmates website.Retrieved on 2007-08-03., and is experimenting with new media, offering a free twelve part weekly Podcast series by Ricky GervaisJason Deans, 2005-12-08. " Gervais to host BBC Radio 2 Christmas show]." The Guardian.. In January 2006 Gervais' show topped the iTunes podcast chart having been downloaded by two million listeners worldwideMedia Guardian " Comedy stars and radio DJs top the download charts." The Guardian., and is scheduled to be listed in the 2007 Guinness Book of Records as the most downloaded PodcastJohn Plunkett, 2006-02-06. "." The Guardian..
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 London Borough of Camden and Islington), wearing Sandal (footwear), 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 Party (UK) Member of Parliament Kevin Hughes's largely rhetorical question in the British 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 terrorism acts, but never once do they talk about the human rights of those who are affected by them?" Hansard 374:54 2001-11-19.
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 weekly column on complementary medicine (Ernst is professor of complementary medicine at the Plymouth, Devon-based Medical school (United Kingdom), Sarah Boseley, 2003-09-26 " The alternative professor." The Guardian.), the paper carries the debunking Bad Science column{{cite web| url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/| title = Bad Science| publisher = The Guardian| accessdate = 2007-02-10-->column by Ben Goldacre and a quizzical column in G2 called The Sceptic,{{cite web] 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. Physicians have used the "doctor slang" acronym GROLIES (Guardian Reader Of Low Intelligence in Ethnic Skirt) on patient notes.BBC News, 2003-08-18. " Doctor slang is a dying art." 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 Parody 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 Conservative Party (UK) 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 including The Guardian. In Episode 6 a group of pro-badger protesters tell James 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 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 USSR; and The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is."
Humphrey Appleby: "Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun (newspaper)?"
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 The Young Ones (TV series) 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 , 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:
Statler & Waldorf: Statler, do you 'get' the banana sketch?
Statler: No, I get The New York Times and The Manchester Guardian.
- In the 2006 film "American Dreamz", the US president played by Dennis Quaid is known for not reading the papers, until he starts reading the 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.
The annual Guardian Student Media Awards, founded in 1999, recognise excellence in journalism and design of British university and college student newspapers, magazines and websites.
In memory of Paul Foot, who died in 2004, The Guardian and Private Eye jointly set up the "Paul Foot Award", with an annual £10,000 prize fund, for investigative/campaigning journalism. The Paul Foot Award for campaigning journalism John Sweeney (journalist) of the Daily Mail won the first prize of £5,000 in 2005, and David Harrison picked up the 2006 award for his investigation into sex trafficking in Eastern Europe published in The Sunday Telegraph.
From a "long list" of 17 entries for the 2007 award, the seven judges – Brian McArthur (Chair), Ian Hislop, Alan Rusbridger, Bill Hagerty, Clare Fermont, Jeremy Dear and Richard Ingrams – shortlisted seven nominations:
- Phil Baty, The Times Higher Education Supplement
- Paul Keilthy, Camden New Journal
- David Leigh and Rob Evans, The Guardian
- Rob Waugh, Yorkshire Post
- The Star (newspaper)
- Richard Brooks, Private Eye and
- Deborah Wain, Doncaster Free Press The Paul Foot Award for Campaigning Journalism - 2007 Short List
The 2007 "Paul Foot Award" was announced at the Media and Spin Bar, Millbank Tower on Monday, 15 October 2007. The top prize of £5,000 was shared by Deborah Wain, Doncaster Free Press and by David Leigh and Rob Evans, The Guardian. The remaining five nominees – Phil Baty, Richard Brooks, Paul Keilthy, Rob Waugh and free magazine, The Salford Star – were each awarded a £1,000 prize. Foot award winners keep investigative journalism light burning bright
Editors
Notable regular contributors (past and present)
{|width=100%|-valign=top|width=25%|Columnists
|width=25%|
|width=25%|
|width=25%|
- Michael White
- Ann Widdecombe
- Zoe Williams
- Martin Woollacott
- Ted Wragg
- Hugo Young
- Tony Zappone
- Slavoj Zizek
- Victor Zorza Zorza inThe Guardian Index, 1842-1928 Book preview, Adam Matthew Publications, Marlborough, Wiltshire.Retrieved on 2007-07-22. Profile:"Pundit with a Punch", Time, 7 July 1958.Retrieved on 2007-07-22.
Cartoonists
- David Austin (cartoonist)
- Steve Bell (cartoonist)
- Joe Berger (illustrator)
- Berkeley Breathed
- Clarke
The Guardian Website
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Stewies Playground stewiesplayground.com Much is happening in the world of Family Guy right now: creator Seth MacFarlane has revealed plans for an online-only show with Google, a ...
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Search by sector or by employer. Dominant in public sector, education, media, graduate and permanent IT positions. Includes a useful career manager auto-alert facility. About 2000 ...
The climate map of Europe | Environment | guardian.co.uk Environment
This "map" shows the equivalent climate cities can expect in the future: for example, London of 2071 most closely matches the climate of the west coast of Portugal today.
Technology | guardian.co.uk
Yahoo's annual general meeting got underway - as scheduled - and Roy Bostock, the chairman, has given an interesting interpretation of events, saying that Yahoo never "resisted ...
guardian.co.uk Blogs
Last week's letters and blog pingbacks in full. Here we've got space for all your letters and blog pingbacks on last week's supplement. Twitter and crime maps had folk stirred up..
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National Sunday quality (broadsheet), sister paper of The Guardian, specialises in in-depth analysis and comment on UK and world news, politics, business and the arts. Includes ...
Books of the year 2007 | Special Reports | guardian.co.uk Books
2008 will be 007's year It's not only the first of Sebastian Faulks's James Bond franchise that will shake and stir book buyers in the coming months