The Guardian

===Publication history===
{{more citations needed section|date=March 2016}}

[[File:GuardianNewsroom.jpg|thumb|right|''The Guardian''{{'s}} Newsroom visitor centre and archive (No 60), with an old sign with the name ''The Manchester Guardian'']]

The first edition was published on 5 May 1821,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.spartacus-educational.com/PRguardian.htm |title=Manchester Guardian |publisher=Spartacus-educational.com |access-date=6 March 2016 |archive-date=6 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306192820/http://spartacus-educational.com/PRguardian.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> at which time ''The Guardian'' was a weekly, published on Saturdays and costing 7[[Penny (British pre-decimal coin)|d]]; the [[stamp duty]] on newspapers (4d per sheet) forced the price up so high that it was uneconomic to publish more frequently. When the stamp duty was cut in 1836, ''The Guardian'' added a Wednesday edition and with the abolition of the tax in 1855 it became a daily paper costing 2d.

In October 1952, the paper took the step of printing news on the front page, replacing the adverts that had hitherto filled that space. Then-editor A. P. Wadsworth wrote: "It is not a thing I like myself, but it seems to be accepted by all the newspaper pundits that it is preferable to be in fashion."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Manchester Guardian; biography of a newspaper|last=David.|first=Ayerst|date=1971|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0801406423|location=Ithaca, N.Y.|oclc=149105|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/manchesterguardi0000ayer}}</ref>

Following the closure of the Anglican Church Newspaper, ''[[The Guardian (Anglican newspaper)|The Guardian]]'', in 1951, the paper dropped "Manchester" from its title in 1959, becoming simply ''The Guardian.''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=O'Reilly|first=Carole|date=2 July 2020|title='The Magnetic Pull of the Metropolis': The ''Manchester Guardian'', The Provincial Press and Ideas of the North|journal=[[Northern History]]|language=en|volume=57|issue=2|pages=270–290|doi=10.1080/0078172X.2020.1800932|s2cid=225581767|issn=0078-172X|url=http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/57668/3/COReillyNorthernHistoryRevised.pdf|access-date=30 June 2022|archive-date=30 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220630235113/http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/57668/3/COReillyNorthernHistoryRevised.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1964 it moved to London, losing some of its regional agenda but continuing to be heavily subsidised by sales of the more downmarket but more profitable ''Manchester Evening News''. The financial position remained extremely poor into the 1970s; at one time it was in merger talks with ''The Times''. The paper consolidated its centre-left stance during the 1970s and 1980s.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}

On 12 February 1988, ''The Guardian'' had a significant redesign; as well as improving the quality of its printers' ink, it also changed its masthead to a juxtaposition of an [[italic type|italic]] [[Garamond]] "''The''", with a bold [[Helvetica]] "Guardian", that remained in use until the 2005 redesign.

In 1992, ''The Guardian'' relaunched its features section as ''G2'', a tabloid-format supplement. This innovation was widely copied by the other "quality" broadsheets and ultimately led to the rise of "compact" papers and ''The Guardian''{{'s}} move to the [[Berliner (format)|Berliner format]]. In 1993 the paper declined to participate in the broadsheet [[price war]] started by [[Rupert Murdoch]]'s ''The Times''. In June 1993, ''The Guardian'' bought ''The Observer'' from [[Lonrho]], thus gaining a serious [[Sunday editions|Sunday sister newspaper]] with similar political views.

Its international weekly edition is now titled ''The Guardian Weekly'', though it retained the title ''Manchester Guardian Weekly'' for some years after the home edition had moved to London. It includes sections from a number of other internationally significant newspapers of a somewhat left-of-centre inclination, including {{Lang|fr|[[Le Monde]]}} and ''[[The Washington Post]]''. ''The Guardian Weekly'' was also linked to a website for expatriates, ''Guardian Abroad'', which was launched in 2007 but had been taken offline by 2012.