It was two hundred years ago today...200th anniversary of The Guardian

[Gloster]

The first edition of The Grauniad came out on May 5, 1821. How should they (or we) celebrate this? What about a new slogan: Two hundreds years of mispronts. (It is noticeable that auto-correct is happy with Grauniad.)

 

[birchesgreen]

The annotated version of the first edition is very interesting.

 

[Busaholic]

it was the Manchester Guardian during my early days. I may feel like 200 years old some days, inc today, but..... Never really my favourite newspaper, even though in theory it's the nearest to my political bias.

 

[eMeS]

From the 1940s, my parents had the Manchester Guardian delivered as long as I can remember, and when I lived away from home, I followed their example. Then the UK moved to a period of very heavy inflation (1970s?), and the Guardian's cover price shot up much faster than my salary, so it had to go.
Now the Guardian moans at me for reading their articles.

I think it's moved to the left since the 1940s to 1960s era - anyone know?

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

Dunno if it has moved left, someone could write a thesis about that. But it has expanded to cover the "Anglosphere", one often finds oneself unwittingly reading an article about NZ, USA etc. Been my paper of choice for some decades.

 

[WelshBluebird]

But it has expanded to cover the "Anglosphere", one often finds oneself unwittingly reading an article about NZ, USA etc.

The same can be true for the BBC or The Daily Mail or any other outlet I feel these days! Probably partly down to the decrease in relevance of actual physical newspapers over the years (literally nobody I know my age or younger - around 30 - buys one) and the increase in needing to have click worthy articles online for that precious ad money (its worth noting that if you aren't in the UK, the BBC website has ads too).

 

[S&CLER]

I remember giving up the Guardian with some relief the day the Independent started (early 1980s I think). Stayed with the Indy until it went online only, then switched to the Times. Occasionally i've seen discarded copies of the Guardian on trains, but they haven't enticed me to go back to it. The rancorous miserabilism seems to have got worse.

 

[Gloster]

I remember giving up the Guardian with some relief the day the Independent started (early 1980s I think). Stayed with the Indy until it went online only, then switched to the Times. Occasionally i've seen discarded copies of the Guardian on trains, but they haven't enticed me to go back to it. The rancorous miserabilism seems to have got worse.

I did move to the Independent for a while when it started (1986?), but returned to the Grauniad as I found the Indy too even handed. At least the Grauniad has opinions.

 

[Butts]

The price of The Guardian ( and many other newspapers is ridiculous) £2.30 is it for the Daily Edition and over £3 for The Saturday version.

Since it went over a quid I'm sure it's price has outpaced inflation by a huge margin - not that they publicise that in it's columns.

To be fair it is not behind a pay wall and is still pretty good.

However at 65p the Ayes (I) have it

 

[telstarbox]

It's the best of the mainstream papers IMO, the news tends to be more factual and well-sourced than the others. The optional paywall is a good socialist approach and hopefully will keep the operation going.

@Butts Papers would be cheaper if more people bought one :P Obviously the fixed costs of printing a paper in colour are massive. Lockdown has probably accelerated the decline of the paper buying habit.

 

[Butts]

It's the best of the mainstream papers IMO, the news tends to be more factual and well-sourced than the others. The optional paywall is a good socialist approach and hopefully will keep the operation going.

@Butts Papers would be cheaper if more people bought one :P Obviously the fixed costs of printing a paper in colour are massive. Lockdown has probably accelerated the decline of the paper buying habit.

True !!

One thing that annoys me is that even with all the modern technology, I often fails to report late football matches and I believe The Guardian is sometimes also afflicted.

I is printed in Glasgow so there really is no excuse with the copy transmitted instantly.

What time are they printing it ? - about 9pm or something.

Even more annoyingly it features a link to the website for reports on "late kick offs"

Indeed it seems the deadlines have gone backwards as the technology has gone forwards.

I thought lockdown would have actually increased sales apart from The Metro !!

 

[Busaholic]

The price of The Guardian ( and many other newspapers is ridiculous) £2.30 is it for the Daily Edition and over £3 for The Saturday version.

Since it went over a quid I'm sure it's price has outpaced inflation by a huge margin - not that they publicise that in it's columns.

To be fair it is not behind a pay wall and is still pretty good.

However at 65p the Ayes (I) have it

I have a subscription for the Saturday Guardian and (Sunday) Observer, paid quarterly in advance, and it saves a lot on the cover price. Trying to read a whole newspaper online is a miserable experience imo and not to be tackled lightly. I totally approve of the Times/Sunday Times paywall on internet browsing of their content at the moment of publication and, perhaps, for a month or so beyond that.

 

[HSTEd]

When I first moved to Manchester for University, you could buy the Guardian half price in the city.

Not so any more.

 

[Lemmy99uk]

When the newspaper train used to arrive in New Street at about 3am you could normally get a free copy of any national except The Guardian.

I was told that it was the only paper not distributed on ‘a sale or return’ basis but I don’t know whether that was the reason.

 

[Gloster]

When the newspaper train used to arrive in New Street at about 3am you could normally get a free copy of any national except The Guardian.

I was told that it was the only paper not distributed on ‘a sale or return’ basis but I don’t know whether that was the reason.

I was told that The Guardian would only take back a maximum of four copies from any outlet, so most ordered only just as many as they felt sure of selling. Other papers took back more or all unsold copies.

 

[Butts]

When the newspaper train used to arrive in New Street at about 3am you could normally get a free copy of any national except The Guardian.

I was told that it was the only paper not distributed on ‘a sale or return’ basis but I don’t know whether that was the reason.

I remember when you could get the Sunday Newspapers late Saturday Night at a lot of Mainline London Stations - wonder if you still can ?

I was told that The Guardian would only take back a maximum of four copies from any outlet, so most ordered only just as many as they felt sure of selling. Other papers took back more or all unsold copies.

Sales have plummeted in the last 10 years from over 300,000 to 128,000 this January - along with all the others.

Since they flogged "The Golden Goose" - Autotrader they have been struggling financially.

Who remembers The Berliner format half way between a Tabloid and Broadsheet.

I still prefer the Broadsheet Format - very few have it now . Sunday Times, Herald and both Telegraphs.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I remember growing up and never really understanding why my friends referred to it as the Grauniad, until at some point as a late teenager I did some thinking about anagrams and misprints and the light dawned. I'd say for a long time it's had a very beneficial impact on public life in the UK - especially as for many years it was the only paper that offered coverage in an intelligent, in-depth and reasonably balanced manner, but from a somewhat left wing perspective (in the sense that it tended to pick news stories likely to be of interest to progressive-minded people, but then covered those stories in a balanced way). More recently, in the Internet age, it became one of places I'd normally go to to get a more in-depth perspective on current events than you normally get from the BBC - and I even a couple of years took out the optional paid subscription, which gives you very few benefits, but does mean you are giving back something in return for being better informed.

Unfortunately, my respect for the Guardian has hugely diminished over the last couple of years. I don't know if it's me that's somehow changed or the Guardian that's changed, but it no longer seems balanced to me. Particularly since identity politics has become such an important fixture in UK cultural life, it seems to me that the Guardian now covers stories from a perspective that presumes the most extreme identity-politics viewpoint is unquestionably correct - to the point of scarcely even acknowledging that alternative views exist. It also seems to me that the Guardian now takes too much delight in searching for anything that paints to Tories in a bad light - not hard to do I know, given how incompetent the Government seems to be - but taken to the point where really minor things are given massive prominence. Because of that, I cancelled my subscription a few months ago, and I now tend to look at the Guardian with some sadness as a news source that used to be really good and trustworthy. I would still like to see it back in its place as a good reliable source of 'moderately progressive' news again though. Emotionally, I feel a bit like a bit of UK heritage has been lost with the loss of balance in the Guardian.

 

[Gloster]

I remember when you could get the Sunday Newspapers late Saturday Night at a lot of Mainline London Stations - wonder if you still can ?

I doubt it. That was probably in the days when papers were distributed by trains that started at the main terminuses. If a train had to be stopped/greatly slowed due to Single Line Working (or often any other reason) en route it was normal for a sorter to chuck out a copy of The Sun or Mirror at the signal box.

 

[Butts]

I doubt it. That was probably in the days when papers were distributed by trains that started at the main terminuses. If a train had to be stopped/greatly slowed due to Single Line Working (or often any other reason) en route it was normal for a sorter to chuck out a copy of The Sun or Mirror at the signal box.

Not The Morning Star ?

 

[Gloster]

Not The Morning Star ?

I shouldn’t think they had many to spare as it always sold so few copies, except to the Russian Communist Party.

 

[Grumbler]

The Manchester Guardian (as it then was) railed against the Lancashire cotton workers when they refused to handle cotton produced by slave labour in the southern states of the USA during the civil war. I do not think this was unconnected with the business interests of the newspaper's proprietor.

 

[Jimini]

I was told that The Guardian would only take back a maximum of four copies from any outlet, so most ordered only just as many as they felt sure of selling. Other papers took back more or all unsold copies.

All publishers have financial unsold targets of varying levels dependent on their manufacturing budget, and all copies are provided on a sale or return basis (firm sale accounts used to exist 10+ years ago but they've been done away with now).

Night sales do still exist, albeit only in London 24hr outlets (petrol stations etc.) and at airport stores. These editions are the first off the presses and if there's a 8pm game of football, the match result won't be in there.

Since the Guardian moved from their Berliner format (printed on their own presses they bought back in the '00s for the princely sum of circa £40m), they are now printed by Reach (The Mirror) and is likely a single press operation now due to the volume declines cited upthread. The footy results will be 'slipped' in once available; however as is the case with a number of smaller titles these days who also operate a single press operation, this means that the first edition will miss any late breaking news and sport results (west country, Isle of Wight, Isle of Man, Scotland etc.).

 

[Gloster]

All publishers have financial unsold targets of varying levels dependent on their manufacturing budget, and all copies are provided on a sale or return basis (firm sale accounts used to exist 10+ years ago but they've been done away with now).

My comment referred to the situation thirty-five years or so ago, which I think had been little changed for many years. News International caused a massive upheaval within a few years.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Papers would be cheaper if more people bought one :P Obviously the fixed costs of printing a paper in colour are massive. Lockdown has probably accelerated the decline of the paper buying habit.

In my younger days, it was the text matter that newspapers were bought for and as such, I still see no need to have any colour enhancements whatsoever.

 

[Butts]

In my younger days, it was the text matter that newspapers were bought for and as such, I still see no need to have any colour enhancements whatsoever.

Indeed, did The Times not used to have advertisement's on the Front Page or was it Personal Adds ?

 

[birchesgreen]

All the papers originally had ads on the front page, indeed the very first bit on the front page of the first Gruniad edition was a notice about a lost dog.