The Guardian Weekly is an international English-language news magazine based in London, England. It is one of the world's oldest international news publications and has readers in more than 170 countries.[1] Editorial content is drawn from its sister publications, the British daily newspaper The Guardian and Sunday newspaper The Observer,[2] and all three are published and owned by the Guardian Media Group.[3]
The first edition of the Manchester Guardian Weekly was printed on 4 July 1919,[4] a week after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The Manchester Guardian viewed itself as a leading liberal voice and wanted to extend its reach, particularly in the United States, in the changing political climate after the First World War. The Weekly had the stated aim of "presenting what is best and most interesting in the Manchester Guardian, what is most distinctive and independent of time, in a compact weekly form".[1] The initial reception was good. Before long the Manchester Guardian could boast "there is scarcely a corner of the civilised world to which it is not being posted regularly", although it is worth noting that the newspaper was banned in Germany by Hitler[5] for a time.
In 1971, the English edition of the French daily newspaper Le Monde folded and the Weekly took on its 12,000-strong subscription list as well as four pages of Le Monde copy. A content deal was made with The Washington Post in 1975. Dedicated pages from both publications augmented Guardian articles until a redesign in 1993, under new editor Patrick Ensor, led to their articles appearing across the Weekly. In the same year, content from The Observer [2] began to appear after the UK Sunday title was purchased by Guardian Media Group.[7]
Around this time the Weekly relocated from Cheadle, to the south of Manchester, to join the rest of the Guardian in London.[8] This move afforded the Weekly better access to editors, leader writers and news features. In 1991, technological advances enabled the first transmission by modem of pages to an Australian print site. Under Ensor's editorship, the paper began to be produced using the desktop publishing program Quark XPress. It became a tabloid-sized publication; then, in 2005, when the daily Guardian newspaper converted from a broadsheet to the smaller, Berliner format,[9] the Guardian Weekly shrank to a half-Berliner while increasing pagination to its now-standard 48 pages. Full-colour printing was also introduced. By the end of Ensor's editorship, curtailed by his death from cancer in 2007,[10] more advances in technology meant that even Weekly readers in the most remote locations were able to access the internet.
The Guardian Weekly was re-designed in October 2018 as a glossy magazine.[18] It was announced that the circulation of the magazine would increase, and three different editions would be published: International, North American, and Australian.[19]
The title is printed at sites in the UK, Poland, Australia, New Zealand and the United States in a full-colour news magazine format. The standard publication runs to 64 pages since its change of format (from a newspaper) on 12 October 2018.
Surveys reveal that some 60% of subscribers had taken the paper for more than a decade. Readership tends towards a well-educated demographic. The typical reader is aged over 45, educated to at least degree level and either working in or retired from education, with a 59-41 male-female split.[1]
Readers say typical reasons for subscribing include: a family habit of taking the Manchester Guardian; a spell working abroad in development or teaching; and retirement or emigration (often to Australia, New Zealand or North America). Others often report their route to initiation into the Guardian Weekly family came by having a copy passed along to them in a workplace or during a secondment.
The paper's readers include many world statesmen, including Nelson Mandela, who subscribed during his time in prison and described the paper as his "window on the wider world".[21] George W. Bush was reportedly the first President of the United States since Jimmy Carter not to subscribe to the Guardian Weekly, breaking tradition with Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton.[22]
The Guardian Weekly eclipses these other publications, I believe, through its sheer history of weekly round-up news coverage and host of immersion worthy features since it launched in 1919. Previously with an aesthetic akin to The Guardian newspaper itself, the Guardian Weekly has undergone a slick, sophisticated and thoroughly engaging rebrand pitting it up there amongst the best designed, and most content worthy weekly news-y publications globally.
A 64-page magazine featuring analysis of the biggest stories of the week, long-reads, interviews, opinion pieces and a sizeable arts and puzzle section, its a curated publication for all your news, culture, arts and, well, weekend-morning-brain wake up needs. The new rebrand sees the Guardian Weekly firmly cement itself amongst the competition, with colourful feature illustrations, full-bleed image double pagers and an innovative interplay between text and imagery.
As well as containing a diverse range of international and UK news, the Guardian Weekly includes a range of other sections:- Finance- Culture- Comment and debate- Books- Letters- Training and development- Science- Sport
The Guardian Weekly is one of the world's best-selling international weekly newspapers. It offers a unique blend of international news, politics, culture and comment, drawing on the considerable editorial resources of the Guardian, with selected features from the Observer, the Washington Post and Le Monde.
A proud HistoryOriginally founded to keep the US informed about world events as it became increasingly isolationist after the first world war. Its first edition was printed a week after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, and included the following as a statement of mission: "We aim at presenting what is best and most interesting in the Guardian, what is most distinctive and independent of time, in a compact weekly form." After the second world war, it was one of the few publications available in occupied Germany, and was regarded as an important way for the Allies to spread the message of democracy.
The Guardian Weekly has readers in every continentThe Guardian Weekly is read by people in over 100 countries coming from all backgrounds and walks of life, Guardian Weekly readers are often passionate contributors to society. Nelson Mandela read the Guardian Weekly whilst he was incarcerated in Pollsmoor prison, describing it in his autobiography as a "window on the wider world".
National newspapers in the UK sell around 3 million copies a day, and at the Guardian, print still represents 25 percent of the total annual revenues. Digital reader revenues represent 33 percent, she said.
Newspaper circulation in the UK has been declining 15 percent yearly during the past 15 years, she said. But The Guardian managed to mitigate the decline in part by moving from the unique Berliner format to a more commonly used tabloid format.
Additionally, the publisher has been promoting the use of its digital subscription cards, which identifies in real time when and where a subscriber collects their newspaper or pays the retailer. This could allow the publisher to offer benefits to its subscribers instantly.
In 2018, the publisher identified an opportunity when the news weeklies sector was outperforming the magazine market. After extensive research, Guardian decided to relaunch The Guardian Weekly, moving from a weekly newspaper format to a glossy weekly magazine
This proved to be successful and is now an area of growth for the publisher, both in the UK and abroad. The relaunch helped cut costs dramatically. Although the publisher had to close its own print sites, it joined forces with other newspapers, especially Reach PLC.
The weekly newspaper started off in 1919, launched by then editor CP Scott, where it was meant to showcase the best from The Guardian each week. It was sold globally, and before the newspaper launched its first website in the 1990s, it was the only way readers outside of the UK and Ireland could read The Guardian.
Up until now, it has been produced as a half-berliner-sized newspaper, and sold via subscriptions. It has now become a glossy news magazine, similar in format to magazines such as The Week and The Economist, and will be sold on news-stands around the world as well as through subscription.
The front quarter of the magazine, News, features UK and global news round-ups, with the Australia and North America editions of the magazine featuring four pages of localised content in this section.
The masthead has also been left-aligned on the front cover of the magazine, in a bid to make it more visible when stacked up on news-stands, and the previous typeface Display Condensed has been dropped for Guardian Headline, which was also used in the daily paper and Guardian website redesign in January this year.
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