| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Media |
| Founded | 1907 as Manchester Guardian 1993 as Guardian Media Group plc |
| Founder(s) | C. P. Scott |
| Headquarters | Manchester, England |
| Area served | United Kingdom |
| Key people | Andrew Miller, CEO.[1] |
| Products | Newspapers, Radio Stations, Broadcasting, Websites |
| Revenue | £255.1 million |
| Owner(s) | Scott Trust |
| Divisions | Guardian News and Media GMG Radio Trader Media Group GMG Property Services Group |
| Website | http://www.gmgplc.com/ |
Guardian Media Group plc (often referred to as GMG) is a company of the United Kingdom owning various mass media operations including The Guardian and The Observer. The Group is owned by the Scott Trust. It was founded as the Manchester Guardian Ltd in 1907 when C. P. Scott bought the Manchester Guardian from the estate of his cousin Edward Taylor. It became the Manchester Guardian and Evening News Ltd when it bought out the Manchester Evening News in 1924, later becoming the Guardian and Manchester Evening News Ltd to reflect the change in the morning paper's title. It adopted its current name in 1993. Its previous chief executive was Carolyn McCall, formerly Chief Executive of Guardian News and Media Limited and a former non-executive director of Tesco and chair of Opportunity Now. McCall left in June 2010 after being appointed Chief Executive of EasyJet. She was replaced by Andrew Miller in July 2010, he had previously been Chief Financial Officer of the Group.[1]
GMG has various divisions and joint venture businesses: Guardian News & Media (the Guardian, the Observer, guardian.co.uk); GMG Radio (regional radio stations under the Smooth, Real, and Rock Radio brands); Trader Media Group (the Auto Trader magazine and website), which it owns jointly with private equity firm Apax); GMG Property Services (estate agency software providers Vebra and Core, lettings software provider CFP Software, graphic design consultancy The Media Design House and consumer portal ThinkProperty.com); and Emap, the B2B events, data and publishing company, also jointly owned with Apax.
Guardian Media Group exists to support the core purpose of its owner, the Scott Trust: to secure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity.[2]
In March 2007 GMG sold 49.9% of Trader Media Group to Apax Partners, in a deal that valued Trader Media Group at £1.35 billion. In December 2007 it was announced that GMG and Apax had made a successful bid to buy Emap's business-to-business arm for around £1 billion.[3]
In February 2010, the group sold its GMG Regional Media division (consisting of two companies MEN Media and S&B Media which operated 31 local and regional newspaper titles) to Trinity Mirror plc for £44.8 million. The sale ended the historic connection between The Guardian and the Manchester Evening News.[4] The division's local television station for Greater Manchester, Channel M, and two newspapers in Woking were not included in the sale.
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The Board of Directors are:
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