Scott Trust Limited

Last updated

The Scott Trust Limited is the British company that owns Guardian Media Group and thus The Guardian and The Observer as well as various other media businesses in the UK. In 2008, it replaced the Scott Trust, which had owned The Guardian since 1936.

Contents

The company is responsible for appointing the editor of The Guardian (and those of the group's other main newspapers) but, apart from enjoining them to continue the paper's editorial policy on "the same lines and in the same spirit as heretofore", it has a policy of not interfering in their decisions. The arrangement tends to give editors a long tenure: for example, the last incumbent, Alan Rusbridger, held the position from 1995 until 2015.

The current chairman of the Scott Trust Board is Ole Jacob Sunde, [1] who replaced Alex Graham in 2021. Other board members include the current editor-in-chief Katharine Viner, Guardian legal affairs correspondent Haroon Siddique who is the journalist director of the board, and one member of the Scott family. [2]

The Scott Trust is a limited partner in GMG Ventures LP, founded in 2017, [3] according to the GMG 2018 annual report, "this £42m venture capital fund is designed to contribute financial returns and to support GMG’s strategy by investing in early stage businesses focused on developing the next generation of media technology". [4]

History

1936–1948

The Trust was established in 1936 by John Russell Scott, owner of the Manchester Guardian (as it then was) and the Manchester Evening News . After the deaths in quick succession of his father C. P. Scott and brother Edward, and consequent threat of death duties, John Scott wished to prevent future death duties forcing the closure or sale of the newspapers, and to protect the liberal editorial line of the Guardian from interference by future proprietors. The first and only chairman of the first Trust was John Scott.

1948–2008

The Trust was dissolved and reformed in 1948, as it was thought that the Trust, under the terms of the original Trust Deed, had become liable to tax due to changes in the law. At this time John Scott also gave up his exclusive right to appoint trustees; the trustees would henceforth appoint new members themselves. Five months after the signing of the new Trust Deed, John Scott died. After three years of legal argument, the Inland Revenue gave up its claim for death duty.

The eight initial trustees of the 1948 Trust were all connected with the Manchester Guardian and Evening News, Ltd., and included four of C. P. Scott's grandsons as well as the then editor of the Guardian, A. P. Wadsworth. It has become normal practice for a Guardian journalist to be a member of the trust, though they are not considered to be a "representative" of the staff, as this may result in a conflict of interests.

In 1992, the Trust identified its central objective as being the following:

"To secure the financial and editorial independence of The Guardian in perpetuity: as a quality national newspaper without party affiliation; remaining faithful to its liberal tradition; as a profit-seeking enterprise managed in an efficient and cost-effective manner." [5]

The Trust saw its main functions as being the following:

The second Trust had five Chairmen over its 60 years: Alfred Powell Wadsworth (1948–56), Richard Farquhar Scott (1956–84), Alastair Hetherington (1984–89), Hugo Young (1990–2003) and Liz Forgan.

The Scott Trust Limited: 2008–present

In October 2008, it was announced that the trust was being wound up and its assets transferred to a new limited company named "The Scott Trust Limited" to strengthen the protection it offers to the Guardian and because [l]ike all non-charitable trusts, and unlike limited companies, the Scott Trust has a finite lifespan. [6] The core purpose of the Trust was enshrined in the constitution of the Limited company and "cannot be altered or amended." The new company is barred from paying dividends, and "its constitution has been carefully drafted to ensure that no individual can ever personally benefit from the arrangements." [7]

In February 2010, the company announced the sale of its GMG Regional Media arm and its regional print titles to the Trinity Mirror Group. The regional titles comprised the Manchester Evening News and 31 others in the North West and South of England. The sale was finalised on 28 March 2010 and ended the Scott Trust's association with regional newspapers.

In 2012 the Scott Trust Limited became a co-founder of the European Press Prize. [8]

Guardian News and Media, a subsidiary of the Scott Trust Limited, reported a loss of £30.9 million for the year to the end of April 2013. [9]

The company via the Guardian Media Group (GMG, a subsidiary company) completed the sale for £619 million of its 50.1% stake in Auto Trader on 4 March 2014. Apax Partners, a venture capital firm, increased its share to become the sole shareholder in the business. The £619 million earned from the sale of Auto Trader adds to the £253.7 million of cash and investments which GMG published in its 2013 annual report. This leaves an investment fund which is likely to be in excess of £850 million to underwrite Guardian losses. [9]

In December 2014, it was announced that Alan Rusbridger, then Guardian editor-in-chief, would succeed Forgan as the chairman of the company in 2016 [10] but he unexpectedly announced on 13 May 2016 his resignation as a director. [11]

As of January 2016, the company's funds were £740 million, down from £838.3 million in July 2015. [12]

As of 1 April 2018, the value of the Scott Trust Endowment Fund was £1.01 billion, down slightly from £1.03 billion in 2017. [4]

In 2023, following independent academic research commissioned in 2020 reporting, the trust apologised for the newspaper's founders involvement in transatlantic slavery principally through the cotton trade. It announced a £10 million ten-year programme of restorative justice. [13]

In November 2024, Jonathan Paine was appointed to the board of the Scott Trust. Paine is a former managing director and senior adviser at Rothschild & Co. [14]

Governance

Scott Trust Limited was incorporated on 24 September 2008 as Scott Place 1001 Limited, and adopted its current name on 3 October 2008; its number is 06706464 and it is a company limited by shares. [15] The Scott Trust Limited is governed according to the articles of association, set up in 2008 and filed at Companies House. [16] The articles say that the board of directors must guard editorial independence. The board appoints itself under article 63, through an appointments committee. Neither workers at the newspapers nor readers participate in voting for board members. Such voting could be allowed with 75% approval of the existing board of directors under article 7.[ citation needed ]

The Scott Trust Board

Current members

NameJoinedPosition
Ole Jacob Sunde2015Chairman of the Scott Trust Limited board (2021–present)
Katharine Viner June 2015Editor-in-chief, Guardian News and Media (June 2015 – present)
Tracy Corrigan2022
Dr Margaret Simons2022
David Olusoga June 2018Historian, had also been writing for The Guardian
Stuart Proffitt 2015
Vivian Schiller 2015
Russell Scott2015Senior Independent Director
Haroon Siddique 2022Journalist director of the Scott Trust Limited board (2022 – present)
Matthew Ryder2020
Jonathan Paine2024

Past members

NamePosition
Alex Graham Chair of the Scott Trust Limited board (2016 – 2021)
Liz Forgan Chair of the Scott Trust (2003 – 2008)
Chair of Scott Trust Limited (2008 – 2016)
Hugo Young Chair of the Scott Trust (1989 – 2003)
Philip Mark Tranter Company Secretary (2012 – 2017)
David PemselChief executive office, Guardian Media Group (June 2015 - January 2020)
Heather StewartDirector, (September 2011 - March 2016)
Nils Pratley Journalist director of the Scott Trust Limited board (2016 – 2022)

[17]

The Guardian Foundation

Besides the GMG businesses, the company has a charitable wing: The Guardian Foundation [18] [19] led by Executive Director Kelly Walls. [20]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Independent</i> British online daily newspaper

The Independent is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the Indy, it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was published on Saturday 26 March 2016, leaving only the online edition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guardian Media Group</span> British multinational mass media company

Guardian Media Group plc (GMG) is a British-based mass media company owning various media operations including The Guardian and The Observer. The group is wholly owned by the Scott Trust Limited, which exists to secure the financial and editorial independence of The Guardian in perpetuity.

<i>The Times of India</i> Indian English-language daily newspaper

The Times of India, also known by its abbreviation TOI, is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the fourth-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest selling English-language daily in the world. It is the oldest English-language newspaper in India, and the second-oldest Indian newspaper still in circulation, with its first edition published in 1838. It is nicknamed as "The Old Lady of Bori Bunder", and is a "newspaper of record".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David and Frederick Barclay</span> British businessmen; twin brothers (born 1934)

Sir David Rowat Barclay and Sir Frederick Hugh Barclay, commonly referred to as the "Barclay Brothers" or "Barclay Twins", were British billionaire brothers, of whom Frederick Barclay is now the sole survivor. They were identical twin brothers and, until the death of David in 2021, had joint business interests primarily in media, retail and property.

<i>Manchester Evening News</i> British daily newspaper for North West England

The Manchester Evening News (MEN) is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the MEN on Sunday, was launched in February 2019. The newspaper is owned by Reach plc ,[2] one of Britain's largest newspaper publishing groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Rusbridger</span> Newspaper journalist and editor (born 1953)

Alan Charles Rusbridger is a British journalist and editor of Prospect magazine. He was formerly editor-in-chief of The Guardian and then principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.

<i>The San Diego Union-Tribune</i> Daily newspaper in San Diego, California

The San Diego Union-Tribune is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868. Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, The San Diego Union and the San Diego Evening Tribune. The name changed to U-T San Diego in 2012 but was changed again to The San Diego Union-Tribune in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PA Media</span> National news agency of the UK and Ireland

PA Media is a multimedia news agency. It is part of PA Media Group Limited, a private company with 26 shareholders, most of whom are national and regional newspaper publishers. The biggest shareholders include the Daily Mail and General Trust, News UK, and Informa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janine Gibson (journalist)</span> British journalist

Janine Victoria Gibson is a British journalist who was appointed editor of the Weekend FT in 2023. Previously she was assistant editor of the Financial Times since May 2019. Before then, in the summer of 2014, she became deputy editor of Guardian News and Media and editor-in-chief of theguardian.com website in London. She was the editor-in-chief in New York City of Guardian US, the offshoot of The Guardian which won the Pulitzer Public Service prize in 2014. After leaving The Guardian, she was editor-in-chief of the BuzzFeed UK website until she stepped down in January 2019 as the publication announced financial difficulties.

GMG Radio was a company that owned the Real Radio and Smooth Radio networks. As GMG Radio, the company was the radio division of the Guardian Media Group until it was bought in 2012 by Global Radio, however pending regulatory review of the merger the company was renamed Real and Smooth Limited and operated as a separate entity, until May 2014.

The Economist Newspaper Limited is a media company headquartered in London, England. It is best known as publisher of The Economist newspaper and its sister lifestyle magazine, 1843. The Economist Group specialises in international business and world affairs information. Its principal activities are in print and digital media as well as in conferences and market intelligence.

Press Gazette, formerly known as UK Press Gazette (UKPG), is a British trade magazine dedicated to journalism and the press. First published in 1965, it had a circulation of about 2,500 before becoming online-only in 2013. Published with the strapline "Future of Media", it covers news about newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, and the online press, dealing with launches, closures, moves, legislation and technological advances affecting journalists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchester Metro News</span>

The Manchester Metro News was a British weekly newspaper published each Friday by Reach plc. It was established in 1987 as a free sister paper to the Manchester Evening News featuring a round up of the week's news. These days the paper also has a 12-page supplement called Metromagazine and a total circulation of 308,589 in the south Manchester area . It has a smaller geographical reach than the M.E.N.. It is delivered in south and east Manchester, Stockport, Trafford and the Wilmslow area - and has three separate geographical editions: City, Trafford and Stockport. Most of the content of the paper is the same for all three editions, but a few pages differ, with more local advertising and editorial. In February 2010 along with the Guardian Media Group's other regional and local titles, the newspaper was sold to competitor Trinity Mirror plc. This was in order to safeguard the future of the loss making newspaper The Guardian.

Hubert Kinsman Cudlipp, Baron Cudlipp, OBE, was a Welsh journalist and newspaper editor noted for his work on the Daily Mirror in the 1950s and 1960s. He served as chairman of the Mirror Group group of newspapers from 1963 to 1967, and the chairman of the International Publishing Corporation from 1968–1973.

Dame Elizabeth Anne Lucy Forgan, DBE is an English journalist, and radio and television executive.

<i>Guardian US</i> US version of The Guardian

Guardian US is the Manhattan-based American online presence of the British print newspaper The Guardian. It launched in September 2011, led by editor-in-chief Janine Gibson, and followed the earlier Guardian America service, which was closed in 2009. Guardian US is only available online. John Mulholland was appointed in January 2018 as the editor of Guardian US. Mulholland left his post at Guardian US in 2022 and was succeeded by Betsy Reed.

<i>The Guardian</i> British national daily newspaper

The Guardian is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian, and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister papers, The Observer and The Guardian Weekly, The Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of The Guardian in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of The Guardian free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for The Guardian the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in its journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK.

Katharine Sophie Viner is a British journalist and playwright. She became the first female editor-in-chief at The Guardian on 1 June 2015, succeeding Alan Rusbridger. Viner previously headed The Guardian's web operations in Australia and the United States, before being selected for the editor-in-chief's position.

Sir Robert Paul Gibb, known as Robbie Gibb, is a British public relations professional and former political advisor and broadcast journalist.

<i>Guardian Australia</i> Australian online newspaper

Guardian Australia is the Australian website of the British global online and print newspaper, The Guardian.

References

  1. ↑ Jackson, Jasper (22 September 2016). "Alex Graham appointed as seventh chair of the Scott Trust". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  2. ↑ "The Scott Trust board". The Guardian. 26 July 2015. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  3. ↑ "About Guardian Media Group". The Guardian . 24 July 2018. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  4. 1 2 "Guardian Media Group plc (GMG) results for the financial year ended 1 April 2018". The Guardian. 24 July 2018.
  5. 1 2 Ellis, Gavin (2014). Trust Ownership and the Future of News: Media Moguls and White Knights. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 157–58. ISBN   9781137369437.
  6. ↑ "Scott Trust updates structure". The Guardian. 8 October 2008. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  7. ↑ Dominic Ponsford (8 October 2008). "Guardian-owning Scott Trust to fold after 72 years". Press Gazette.
  8. ↑ "Members". European Press Prize. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  9. 1 2 "Guardian 'secure for generations to come' after tax-free bonanza of £619 million from Auto Trader sale". Press Gazette. 4 March 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  10. ↑ Jane Martinson (10 December 2014). "Alan Rusbridger to stand down as Guardian editor-in-chief". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  11. ↑ "Former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger leaves Scott Trust". BBC News. 13 May 2016. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  12. ↑ Martinson, Jane (17 March 2016). "Guardian Media Group to cut 250 jobs in bid to break even within three years". The Guardian.
  13. ↑ Mohdin, Aamna (28 March 2023). "Guardian owner apologises for founders' links to transatlantic slavery". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  14. ↑ Warrington, James (13 November 2024). "Guardian owner appoints former Rothschild banker to board amid Observer sale". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  15. ↑ "Company overview for the Scott Trust Limited on Companies House website". Companies House . Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  16. ↑ "THE SCOTT TRUST LIMITED: Corporate governance" (PDF). The Guardian . 23 July 2018. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  17. ↑ "THE SCOTT TRUST LIMITED - Filing history". Companies House.
  18. ↑ "THE GUARDIAN FOUNDATION, registered charity no. 1153865". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
  19. ↑ "The Guardian Foundation".
  20. ↑ "The Guardian Foundation appoints Kelly Walls as its new executive director". The Guardian. 19 October 2019.

External

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.