Fifty years ago today a northern newspaper shed its ‘local’ masthead and became The Guardian.

The Manchester Guardian, as it was so born in 1821, lost the name of its home city for good but promised never to leave its North West birthplace.

Five years later The Guardian moved wholesale to London where it has remained ever since.

In a leader article, the paper said it had a circulation of 183,000 which was “tiny when compared with Fleet Street’s millions”.

It went on to explain the name changes as: “The omission of Manchester implies neither a change of policy nor any disrespect to our home.”

Comments

Huw Whatt (24/08/2009 14:38:07)
“The omission of Manchester implies neither a change of policy nor any disrespect to our home.” …. “we will continue to pillage the profit-making newspapers of our home city to hide the fact that we are woefully unsustainable”