On G2’s 10th anniversary in 2002, Peter Preston – Guardian editor in 1992 when the section was first launched on an unsuspecting world – recalled how he had had the idea for the new section: “Why did ‘tabloid’ mean ‘downmarket’ here?” he asked rhetorically. “It didn’t in France (Le Monde and Libération) or Spain (El País) or Italy (La Repubblica) or even America (Newsday). Serious papers could make good use of smaller page sizes, organising them with pace and flexibility so the subject commanded the space it needed (and not, broadsheet-ploddingly, the reverse). And then, one day, I picked up a Swiss paper at a cafe in Lausanne and saw the way they had used different-sized newsprint sheets to create two contrasting sections. There, perhaps, was something we could try.”
Ever the revolutionary, try it he did, and with resounding success. For six years, the Guardian had been fighting a trench war with the Independent, and G2 proved to be the weapon that helped change the course of the conflict. Suddenly the Independent looked a bit too earnest and leaden, while the Guardian could have the best of both worlds, with news in the broadsheet first section and a more lateral, sometimes jokey, take on current affairs in the second.
In 1988, Alan Rusbridger had been launch editor on the Weekend Guardian, not then a chic glossy, but a newsprint paper full of good writing and offbeat columns. Once he had shown what could be achieved on Saturdays, the trick, as he and Preston saw it, was to bring that smartness and offbeat approach to the news on a daily basis.
G2 brought all the paper’s general features together in one section, increased the amount of arts coverage and allowed a far greater plurality of stories and points of view. The serious and the salacious could sit side by side. In one of the first issues, an essay by the esteemed literary editor Karl Miller is followed by a feature on Cosmo readers. Where once arts coverage would have meant an 800-word review of Janáček’s From the House of the Dead at Covent Garden, now room was found for a regular feature called Feuds Corner, a witty report on long-running cultural contretemps.
Pictures (still in black and white) were used boldly; headlines and standfirsts prioritised wit and attack. “Not waving but clowning,” said the cover for an article about the hapless US vice-president Dan Quayle. Inside it poses the question: “Is Dan Quayle more than a pretty face?” The fact the standfirst goes on to say that the writer of the article “joins the ‘gaffe and death’ watch” suggests the answer may be no. And then there was Pass Notes, still going strong 25 years later, which director Jonathan Miller called a “pollutant” infecting culture in the UK. G2 was loved by some, loathed by others, but it could not be ignored.
The new section helped transform the Guardian’s fortunes in the early 90s, beating off the challenge of the Independent, but it also influenced the way journalism was conducted more broadly. The magazine Modern Review, spearheaded by Julie Burchill and Toby Young, was already seeking to break down the barriers between pop and posh, and G2 brought something of that spirit to mainstream media. Anyone fancy reading a Pass Notes on Janáček?
Pass Notes was itself universally copied – pretty soon every paper had “key notes” and “three-minute guides” – and G2 spawned countless imitators. “The format didn’t remain unique to us for very long,” wrote Rusbridger on G2’s 20th anniversary. “It was clearly such an obvious idea for a serious newspaper to do – and soon many other newspapers were doing it. Within months, both the Independent and Times had launched their own versions, and newspapers across Europe started springing up with sections branded R2 or C2 or M2 or whatever.”
“What PP’s concept for G2 allowed,” says Roger Alton, who was close to Preston, succeeded Rusbridger as G2 editor and went on to edit both the Observer and the Independent, “was the use of a separate features section which could take a different, irreverent, ribald, robust view of the world, the arts, people, current affairs etc etc. It was of the news but not governed by the news and a fantastic breath of fresh air. It was a benchmark for other papers and widely imitated then and now. A sharp example of PP’s unique and innovatory genius.”
The way G2 changed journalism most was not by introducing a new format but a new attitude: smart, funny and unpredictable. The Guardian had always prized wit; now it institutionalised it. “On dark news days,” said Preston, “it could bring a lightness of touch: a different tabloid agenda set by people and issues from ordinary or extraordinary life. On momentous news days, it could add a knockout punch. Readers said they liked to read it on the way to work or in the bath when they got home. The features floor suddenly became a seething marketplace of journalists talking to each other. Creativity squared.”
1821
- In April, a prospectus announces a new paper for Manchester. A month later, on 5 May 1821, John Edward Taylor publishes the first Manchester Guardian as a newspaper in the liberal interest.
1872
- Charles Prestwich Scott, a liberal thinker with strong principles, becomes editor of the Guardian - a post he holds for 57 years.
1907
- CP Scott buys the Guardian, becoming both owner and editor.
1921
- CP Scott writes a leading article to mark the centenary of the paper that becomes recognised around the world as the blueprint for independent journalism and includes the line “Comment is free, but facts are sacred.”
1929
- CP Scott retires as editor in favour of his son Ted.
1932
- CP Scott’s death in January is followed swiftly by that of his younger son; Ted Scott is killed in a tragic boating accident in April. William Percival Crozier is appointed as editor.
1936
- Ownership of the Manchester Guardian is transferred to the Scott Trust to protect the paper, its independence and the journalistic principles of CP Scott.
1944
- Following WP Crozier’s death, Alfred Powell Wadsworth becomes editor.
1956
- Alastair Hetherington becomes editor following Wadsworth’s death.
1959
- On 24 August the newspaper changes its title from the Manchester Guardian to the Guardian, to reflect the growing importance of national and international affairs in the newspaper.
1964
- The editor’s office and major editorial departments relocate from Manchester to London.
1975
- Peter Preston is appointed editor.
1988
- The Guardian has a radical redesign, splitting the newspaper into two sections and introducing a new masthead.
1995
- Alan Rusbridger becomes editor.
1999
- Guardian Unlimited (GU) network of websites is launched.
2005
- The mid-sized Berliner format newspaper launched. It is the UK's first full-colour national newspaper.
2011
- A new digital operation, Guardian US, is launched in New York as a hub for Guardian readers in the US.
2013
- The Guardian launches Australian digital edition, Guardian Australia.
2015
- Katharine Viner is appointed Guardian editor-in-chief.
Preston’s career was devoted to managing change and to introducing what he called “zing” to the Guardian – something he felt was missing when he joined the high-minded paper in 1963. Next week, the Guardian goes tabloid. Sadly, Preston will not be around to comment on what we produce, but let’s hope his spirit guides the latest incarnation of a never-ending (r)evolution. Bold, restless, never standing still; fusing news and features, the old and the new, the earnest and the irreverent; allowing there to be creative tensions between the two approaches but never letting them become destructive. A difficult trick to pull off, but one he managed. Creativity cubed.
