The Guardian Launched as a weekly in 1821 in the wake of the Peterloo Massacre with an agenda for political reform, The Guardian (or Manchester Guardian as it was known until 1959) has been a focus for liberal views and a rallying point for the Left for almost 200 years. Its recent renaissance, inspired by a series of agenda-defining scoops and its early-adopter advances into online news delivery, suggest that newspapers (albeit possibly without the paper) still have a future.
Fun on the outside, serious on the inside; the bright, cheery layout of The Guardian cleverly avoids the austere conventions of its social-liberal philosophy. Traditional, yet modern, must surely have been the brief for the redesigns in 1988 and 2005. However, although each was spurred by fresh thinking at The Independent, the latter effort was also required to address far wider challenges for the newsprint industry. To harsh judges of return on investment, the £80m sunk into new presses capable of producing a full-colour Berliner format was too meagre and too short-lived to deserve applause. Although sales initially rose by 5%, loss of readers quickly resumed and daily sales now stand at little more than half those of the heady days of 2006.
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At a time when HMV, Blockbuster and Jessops have all succumbed to the convenience and value of online shopping, it’s worth recognising that design works best as a catalyst for change, not a panacea. Measured against the broader need to transform its business model, the transition to online publishing, facilitated by a fresh new look, is a triumph. Averaging more than 30 million unique users a month, the online version has catapulted The Guardian from second smallest national daily to second largest. The brand’s problems have not been cured – far from it – but the challenge is at least now clear: to match the growth in digital audience with growth in revenue. AK