- guardian.co.uk
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This article is about the online news resource. For the newspaper, see The Guardian.
guardian.co.uk 
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Frontpage, 19 February 2008URL guardian.co.uk Commercial? Yes Type of site Online Newspaper Available language(s) English Owner Guardian Media Group Created by The Guardian Launched 1999 Alexa rank 
163 (November 2011[update])[1]Current status Active guardian.co.uk, formerly known as Guardian Unlimited, is a British website owned by the Guardian Media Group. Georgina Henry is the editor.[2] 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.[3]
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.[4]
Contents
Ownership
guardian.co.uk is part of the Guardian Media Group 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.
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.[citation needed] The website won the Best Newspaper category in the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Webby Awards, beating the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and Variety.[5]
In 2006 guardian.co.uk reported its first profitable year, with income coming mostly from recruitment and display advertising.[6]
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.[7]
Subsites
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 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.
Guardian America
Main article: 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 Guardian and The Observer newspapers, plus contributions from more than 600 other writers. The site is edited by Natalie Hanman;[8] its subsite devoted to religious affairs, Cif belief, is edited by Andrew Brown. It was launched on March 14 2006[9] 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[10]
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.[11] For particularly sensitive topics, comments may be moderated before posting.[12] Moderators may remove posts that violate the "Community Standards" (usually leaving a marker of the removal), but do not edit them.[12][13]
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).[14] On 7 July 2005, following the London bombings, 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.[15]
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.[16] 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.[3]
Awards
- British Press Awards:[17]
- "Digital Innovation of the Year" (2008, 2009)
- "Digital Journalist of the Year" (Sean Smith, 2008; Dave Hill, 2009)
The awards were created in 2008.[17]
In addition, the 2011 award of "Political Journalist of the Year" to The Guardians 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."[18]
In 2009 it was nominated for (but did not win) a Webby Award for "Best Copy/Writing".[19] However, the subsite Cif belief was nominated for, and won, the Webby in the best religion and spirituality site category.
References
- ^ "Guardian.co.uk Site Info". Alexa Internet. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
- ^ Josh Halliday "Georgina Henry named head of guardian.co.uk", guardian.co.uk, 25 July 2011
- ^ a b guardian.co.uk, 23 June 2011, ABCe: Mail Online nears 80 million monthly users
- ^ "The Guardian Launches Content API". idio. 2009-03-10. http://platform.idiomag.com/2009/03/the-guardian-launches-content-api/. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
- ^ 13th Annual Webby Awards Nominees & Winners
- ^ "Guardian Unlimited in the black for first time". Press Gazette. 2006-03-31. http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=33685. Retrieved 2008-01-30. "The Guardian's website, guardian.co.uk, made a profit of £1m this year"
- ^ "Guardian Unlimited - the new look explained". guardian.co.uk news blog (London). 2007-05-10. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2007/05/10/guardian_unlimited_the_new_look_explained.html. Retrieved 2008-01-30. "…an 18-month programme to redesign and rebuild every part of GU."
- ^ Natalie Hanman, Guardian profile opage
- ^ http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/fleetstreet/2006/03/11/comment-is-free-launches-tuesday/
- ^ http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2008/06/09/guardian-implements-pluck-on-comment-is-free-platform/
- ^ Andrew Brown, A thank you note on moderation, 24 March 2010
- ^ a b guardian.co.uk, 7 May 2009, Frequently asked questions about community on guardian.co.uk, accessed 28 July 2011
- ^ guardian.co.uk, 7 May 2009, Community standards and participation guidelines
- ^ Kiss, Jemima (2008-11-20). "ABCe: US election build-up helps UK newspaper sites to record traffic". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/20/abcs-pressandpublishing. Retrieved 2008-11-20. "The site recorded 25,976,046 unique users last month, according to the latest officially audited web figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic."
- ^ Plunkett, John (2005-07-08). "Record numbers visit Guardian Unlimited". MediaGuardian (London). http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,1524130,00.html. Retrieved 2008-01-30. "Total unique users: 15,955,312"
- ^ Mail Online presses ahead as rivals see post-World Cup dip
- ^ a b Press Gazette, Roll of Honour, accessed 27 July 2011
- ^ guardian.co.uk, 6 April 2011, Press Awards 2011: let's not forget the winners
- ^ 13th Annual Webby Awards Nominees & Winners
External links
- guardian.co.uk
- guardian.co.uk blogs
- Comment is Free
- Guardian Zeitgeist shows most popular current articles
Guardian Media Group National newspapers: The Guardian · The Observer
International newspapers: The Guardian Weekly
Real Radio: North East · North West · Scotland · Wales · Yorkshire
Smooth Radio: Smooth Radio · Smooth Radio (Scotland)
Real Radio XS: 96.3 Scotland · 106.1 Manchester · Digital
Other stations: Jazz FM (licensed to Jazz FM Investments Ltd) ·
Television: Channel M Online: guardian.co.uk · paidContent Other: Trader Media Group · EMAP (joint owner with Apax Partners) · The Beaver
Categories:- British websites
- European news websites
- Guardian Media Group
- Publications established in 1999
- The Guardian
- The Observer
- British Press Awards:[17]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
