Guardian.co.uk
Encyclopedia
guardian.co.uk, formerly known as Guardian Unlimited, is a British website owned by the Guardian Media Group
. Georgina Henry is the editor. It contains nearly all of the content of the newspapers The Guardian
and The Observer
, as well as a substantial body of web-only work produced by its own staff, including a rolling news service.
As of May 2011 it was the second-most popular UK newspaper website after MailOnline
(dailymail.co.uk), with 2.8m unique visitors per day, and 51.3m per month, behind the MailOnline's 4.4m and 77.3m.
The site is made up of a core news site, plus a network of niche websites covering subjects including media, environment and technology, sport, education and the public sector. guardian.co.uk is notable for its engagement with readers, including long-running talkboards and, more recently, a network of weblogs. Its seven blogs were joined on March 14, 2006 by a new comment site, Comment is free (see below), named after the famous quote by The Guardian editor, C. P. Scott
. Articles (like the talkboards until their sudden closure on 25th February, 2011) accept comments without pre-moderation, although posts on Comment is Free are moderated after the event. All now require registration for comments.
The site can be viewed for free and without registration, though some services such as leaving comments on articles require users to register.
In March 2009, guardian.co.uk launched their API, using the OAuth
protocol, and making a wide range of Guardian content available for use by web application
developers.
of newspapers, radio stations, and new media including The Guardian
daily newspaper, and The Observer
Sunday newspaper. 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 takeover by for-profit media groups, and the serious compromise of editorial independence that this often brings.
, beating the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and Variety
.
In 2006 guardian.co.uk reported its first profitable year, with income coming mostly from recruitment and display advertising.
In May 2007, guardian.co.uk begun an 18-month programme of redesigning and adding features to the entire website, starting with the travel section, then moving through the rest of the site and the front page, finally updating the blogging and community features.
Guardian.co.uk/sport has pioneered the online newspaper industry in the United Kingdom
with its live coverage of sports, including live text commentaries of 115 Barclays Premier League football matches and every FIFA World Cup
match. The site also provides some live coverage of the FA Cup
, Champions League
, Europa League and the occasional La Liga
, League Cup
and playoff games.
Much of the content on "Guardian America was taken from guardian.co.uk and The Guardian, although some content was produced specifically for Guardian America.
and The Observer
newspapers, plus contributions from more than 600 other writers. The site is edited by Natalie Hanman; its subsite devoted to religious affairs, Cif belief, is edited by Andrew Brown. It was launched on March 14 2006 with Georgina Henry as launch editor. The original technical design and build was by Ben Hammersley
, based on the Movable Type
blogging platform. Latterly, Cif runs on a bespoke Guardian-made system, using Pluck for the commenting
The site's name is derived from a sentence in a famous essay written by veteran Guardian editor C. P. Scott
: "Comment is free, but facts are sacred".
The site strictly enforces its talk policy by moderating comments after posting. For particularly sensitive topics, comments may be moderated before posting. Moderators may remove posts that violate the "Community Standards" (usually leaving a marker of the removal), but do not edit them.
, 1.3 million unique users visited the site and a total of 7.8 million pages were viewed, at the time a record for guardian.co.uk.
As of August 2010 it was the second-most popular UK newspaper website after MailOnline
(dailymail.co.uk), getting almost 34.6 million unique users monthly, and 13.7 million unique British users monthly. By May 2011 it reached 2.8m unique visitors per day, and 51.3m per month, behind the MailOnline's 4.4m and 77.3m.
The awards were created in 2008.
In addition, the 2011 award of "Political Journalist of the Year" to The Guardian
s Andrew Sparrow "was significant because it was a recognition of the impact of his general election live blog – a reward for innovation as well as reporting."
In 2009 it was nominated for (but did not win) a Webby Award
for "Best Copy/Writing". However, the subsite Cif belief was nominated for, and won, the Webby in the best religion and spirituality site category.
Guardian Media Group
Guardian Media Group plc is a company of the United Kingdom owning various mass media operations including The Guardian and The Observer. The Group is owned by the Scott Trust. It was founded as the Manchester Guardian Ltd in 1907 when C. P. Scott bought the Manchester Guardian from the estate of...
. Georgina Henry is the editor. It contains nearly all of the content of the newspapers The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, as well as a substantial body of web-only work produced by its own staff, including a rolling news service.
As of May 2011 it was the second-most popular UK newspaper website after MailOnline
Mail Online
Mail Online is the name of the website of the Daily Mail, a newspaper in the United Kingdom. It contains almost all the stories from the Daily Mail and includes a large archive of main stories...
(dailymail.co.uk), with 2.8m unique visitors per day, and 51.3m per month, behind the MailOnline's 4.4m and 77.3m.
The site is made up of a core news site, plus a network of niche websites covering subjects including media, environment and technology, sport, education and the public sector. guardian.co.uk is notable for its engagement with readers, including long-running talkboards and, more recently, a network of weblogs. Its seven blogs were joined on March 14, 2006 by a new comment site, Comment is free (see below), named after the famous quote by The Guardian editor, C. P. Scott
C. P. Scott
Charles Prestwich Scott was a British journalist, publisher and politician. Born in Bath, Somerset, he was the editor of the Manchester Guardian from 1872 until 1929 and its owner from 1907 until his death...
. Articles (like the talkboards until their sudden closure on 25th February, 2011) accept comments without pre-moderation, although posts on Comment is Free are moderated after the event. All now require registration for comments.
The site can be viewed for free and without registration, though some services such as leaving comments on articles require users to register.
In March 2009, guardian.co.uk launched their API, using the OAuth
OAuth
OAuth is an open standard for authorization. It allows users to share their private resources stored on one site with another site without having to hand out their credentials, typically username and password.OAuth allows users to hand out tokens instead of credentials to their data hosted by a...
protocol, and making a wide range of Guardian content available for use by web application
Web application
A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are...
developers.
Ownership
guardian.co.uk is part of the Guardian Media GroupGuardian Media Group
Guardian Media Group plc is a company of the United Kingdom owning various mass media operations including The Guardian and The Observer. The Group is owned by the Scott Trust. It was founded as the Manchester Guardian Ltd in 1907 when C. P. Scott bought the Manchester Guardian from the estate of...
of newspapers, radio stations, and new media including The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
daily newspaper, and The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
Sunday newspaper. All the aforementioned are owned by the Scott Trust
Scott Trust
The Scott Trust Limited is the British company which owns Guardian Media Group and thus The Guardian, The Observer and Auto Trader as well as various local newspapers, Smooth Radio and other radio stations, and various other media businesses in the UK...
, 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 takeover by for-profit media groups, and the serious compromise of editorial independence that this often brings.
History
guardian.co.uk was launched in 1999, born of the Guardian New Media Lab. Its popularity soared after the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, largely thanks to the diverse range of viewpoints published in the Guardian newspaper. The website won the Best Newspaper category in the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Webby AwardsWebby Awards
A Webby Award is an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile....
, beating the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
.
In 2006 guardian.co.uk reported its first profitable year, with income coming mostly from recruitment and display advertising.
In May 2007, guardian.co.uk begun an 18-month programme of redesigning and adding features to the entire website, starting with the travel section, then moving through the rest of the site and the front page, finally updating the blogging and community features.
Guardian Sport
Guardian's Sports section is a popular and well-respected web site, providing news, results, match reports and live commentaries from a host of different sports.Guardian.co.uk/sport has pioneered the online newspaper industry in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
with its live coverage of sports, including live text commentaries of 115 Barclays Premier League football matches and every FIFA World Cup
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
match. The site also provides some live coverage of the FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
, Champions League
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
, Europa League and the occasional La Liga
La Liga
The Primera División of the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional , commonly known as La Liga or, for sponsorship reasons, Liga BBVA since 2008, is the top professional association football division of the Spanish football league system...
, League Cup
League Cup
In association football, a League Cup or Secondary Cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament to be called "League Cup" was held in Scotland in 1946/47 and was entitled the Scottish...
and playoff games.
Guardian America
"Guardian America" was an American version of the British news website guardian.co.uk. The strategy, intended to win more US-based readers, was abandoned in October 2009 . Guardianamerica.com now redirects to guardian.co.uk United States topic page.Much of the content on "Guardian America was taken from guardian.co.uk and The Guardian, although some content was produced specifically for Guardian America.
Comment is free
Comment is free, often abbreviated as Cif, is a comment and political opinion site within guardian.co.uk. It contains the comment and opinion pieces from The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
newspapers, plus contributions from more than 600 other writers. The site is edited by Natalie Hanman; its subsite devoted to religious affairs, Cif belief, is edited by Andrew Brown. It was launched on March 14 2006 with Georgina Henry as launch editor. The original technical design and build was by Ben Hammersley
Ben Hammersley
Ben Hammersley is a British internet technologist, journalist, author, broadcaster, and diplomat, currently based in London, England....
, based on the Movable Type
Movable Type
Movable Type is a weblog publishing system developed by the company Six Apart. It was publicly announced on September 3, 2001; version 1.0 was publicly released on October 8, 2001. On 12 December 2007, Movable Type was relicensed as free software under the GNU General Public License...
blogging platform. Latterly, Cif runs on a bespoke Guardian-made system, using Pluck for the commenting
The site's name is derived from a sentence in a famous essay written by veteran Guardian editor C. P. Scott
C. P. Scott
Charles Prestwich Scott was a British journalist, publisher and politician. Born in Bath, Somerset, he was the editor of the Manchester Guardian from 1872 until 1929 and its owner from 1907 until his death...
: "Comment is free, but facts are sacred".
The site strictly enforces its talk policy by moderating comments after posting. For particularly sensitive topics, comments may be moderated before posting. Moderators may remove posts that violate the "Community Standards" (usually leaving a marker of the removal), but do not edit them.
Readership
guardian.co.uk is one of the world's leading online newspapers, becoming the first UK newspaper to attract more than 25 million unique users in a month (October 2008). On 7 July 2005, following the London bombings7 July 2005 London bombings
The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....
, 1.3 million unique users visited the site and a total of 7.8 million pages were viewed, at the time a record for guardian.co.uk.
As of August 2010 it was the second-most popular UK newspaper website after MailOnline
Mail Online
Mail Online is the name of the website of the Daily Mail, a newspaper in the United Kingdom. It contains almost all the stories from the Daily Mail and includes a large archive of main stories...
(dailymail.co.uk), getting almost 34.6 million unique users monthly, and 13.7 million unique British users monthly. By May 2011 it reached 2.8m unique visitors per day, and 51.3m per month, behind the MailOnline's 4.4m and 77.3m.
Awards
- British Press AwardsBritish Press AwardsThe British Press Awards is an annual ceremony that celebrates the best of British journalism. Established in the 1970s, honours are voted on by a panel of journalists and newspaper executives...
:- "Digital Innovation of the Year" (2008, 2009)
- "Digital Journalist of the Year" (Sean SmithSean SmithSean Smith may refer to:* Sean Smith American film director and screenwriter* Sean Smith , American football cornerback* Sean Smith , former American football player for the New England Patriots...
, 2008; Dave HillDave HillDave Hill is an English musician, who is the lead guitarist and backing vocalist in the English glam rock group, Slade. The music journalist, Stuart Maconie, commented "he usually wore a jumpsuit made of the foil that you baste your turkeys in and platforms of oil-rig-derrick height...
, 2009)
The awards were created in 2008.
In addition, the 2011 award of "Political Journalist of the Year" to The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
s Andrew Sparrow "was significant because it was a recognition of the impact of his general election live blog – a reward for innovation as well as reporting."
In 2009 it was nominated for (but did not win) a Webby Award
Webby Awards
A Webby Award is an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile....
for "Best Copy/Writing". However, the subsite Cif belief was nominated for, and won, the Webby in the best religion and spirituality site category.
External links
- guardian.co.uk
- guardian.co.uk blogs
- Comment is Free
- Guardian Zeitgeist shows most popular current articles