The Guardian is a British national daily newspaper, known until 1959 as the Manc

hester Guardian. Along with its sister papers The Observer and The Guardian Week
ly, The Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by The Scott Trust L
imited. The Trust was created in 1936 "to secure the financial and editorial ind
ependence of The Guardian in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedo
m and liberal values of The Guardian free from commercial or political interfere
nce." The Scott Trust became a limited company in 2008, with a constitution to m
aintain the same protections for The Guardian. Profits are reinvested in journal
ism rather than to the benefit of an owner or shareholders.[2]
The Guardian is edited by Katharine Viner, who succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015
.[3][4] The newspaper has a UK online edition as well as two international web s
ites, Guardian Australia and Guardian US. As of August 2013, The Guardian's prin
t edition had an average daily circulation of 189,000 copies, behind The Daily T
elegraph and The Times, and ahead of The Independent.[5] The newspaper's online
edition was the fifth most widely read in the world as of October 2014, with ove
r 42.6 million readers.[6] In the UK, its combined print and online editions rea
ch nearly 9 million readers.[7]
Notable scoops include the 2011 News International phone hacking scandal, in par
ticular the hacking of murdered teenager Milly Dowler's phone.[8] The investigat
ion led to the closure of one of the highest circulation newspapers in the world
, the News of the World.[9] The newspaper also released news of the secret colle
ction of Verizon telephone records held by Barack Obama's administration in June
2013,[10] and subsequently revealed the existence of the PRISM surveillance pro
gram after it was leaked to the paper by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.[11]
The Guardian was also named Newspaper of the Year in the 2014 British Press Awar
ds for reporting on government surveillance.[12]
The paper is still occasionally referred to by its nickname of The Grauniad, giv
en originally for the purported frequency of its typographical errors.[13]