Guardian Media Group

 
Responsibility
Corporate responsibility (CR) - the idea that businesses have obligations to the society in which they operate - is regarded as a relatively new phenomenon, and it is true that many organisations have only recently begun to make CR a priority.

At GMG an awareness of the wider responsibilities of business has always been at the very heart of what we do. The Manchester Guardian was created to support social reform in the early 19th century, and the ethos of public service has been part of the Group's DNA ever since.

The great Manchester Guardian editor CP Scott encapsulated this in his famous 1921 leader marking the centenary of the paper, in which he asserted that newspapers have 'a moral as well as material existence'.

He also listed the essential attributes that he believed should form the character of a newspaper. GMG's owner, the Scott Trust, adopted these values as its own, and they continue to inform the way in which we run our business - operating GMG as a proftitable enterprise while always seeking to adhere to principles of decency and public service.

The Scott Trust values are:
  • honesty
  • cleanness (now interpreted as integrity)
  • courage
  • fairness
  • a sense of duty to the reader and the community
We put these principles into action and fulfil our responsibilities primarily through our day-to-day business conduct and the editorial content of our newspapers, websites and other media.

The Trust and GMG's subsidiaries are also involved in a range of other activities designed to support the wider community, manage our environmental impacts and promote press freedom in the UK and abroad.

Our national division, Guardian News & Media, has led the way for the UK newspaper industry in terms of corporate responsibility reporting with the award-winning Living Our Values - social, ethical and environmental audit.

Read about our community activities
Managing our environmental impacts
Our approach to corporate governance