The Guardian
The Guardian is unabashedly left-of-centre and for many years was the only mass-circulation national daily towards that end of the political spectrum. (The Morning Star has never been widely available, even when it was the official organ of the Communist Party of Great Britain.)
Originally founded in 1821 as the Manchester Guardian, it went national (and dropped the Manchester) in 1959.
The Guardian has been owned by the same company since 1907, although the company’s undergone a series of name changes; it was initially the Manchester Guardian Ltd, then became the Manchester Guardian and Evening News Ltd following the purchase of the Manchester Evening News in 1924 (and then the Guardian and Manchester Evening News Ltd following the 1959 name change). It’s been known as the Guardian Media Group since 1993.
It’s traditionally been a paper of social protest: its 1821 prospectus declared that it would “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.” It’s not departed from that stance ever since and is commonly seen as a favourite with students, teachers, social workers, hippies and bleeding-heart pinko liberals in general. It’s generally pro-European, pro-welfare state, pro-civil rights; and has been conducting a concerted anti-monarchy campaign for a number of years now.
It claims – with some justification – to have made a bigger shift to web-based reporting than any other paper. It was also the first of the national heavyweight dailies to switch to a “Berliner” format, with modern presses enabling it to print in colour on every page (although the Northern Ireland edition is still largely in black-and-white).
In its early days as a national newspaper it picked up a reputation for containing typesetting errors, which also earned it the affectionate (or contemptuous) nickname of The Grauniad from Private Eye.
Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
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