With help from volunteers at the Guardian Foundation, the Guardian News & Media Archive conducted an oral history project in April and May of 2021 to capture working life at the Guardian in its bicentenary year. Over 30 members of staff, including colleagues from the Guardian US office, were invited to tell the archive what it was like to work at the Guardian in 2021.
Interviews were conducted with both editorial and non-editorial departments, with contributors including Katharine Viner, Max Sanderson, Daniel Boffey and Theresa Malone.
Of course, due to the pandemic, this snapshot fell in a year where the world had to adjust to remote working, meaning the interviews were carried out virtually.
These half-hour conversations included thoughts on the biggest news stories of 2020 and 2021, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the US election, and the impact of Brexit. They also look at the siginifcant challenges faced and conversly, the different opportunities that arose from working in such different circumstances.
Andrew Sparrow, political correspondent, outlines the process of writing the Guardian’s politics live blog, his favourite story and how he interacts with readers through the blog’s comments. Meanwhile, Danielle Stephens, audio producer involved in many of the podcasts that kept listeners entertained through lockdown, recounted how it all came together behind-the-scenes. Guardian publishing director, Mylene Sylvestre shared her thoughts on the importance of the Guardian’s values and how she would like to encourage young readers in 2021 to take up the paper now. Recorded just two weeks before the Guardian’s 200th anniversary, Executive editor for reader revenues, Mark Rice-Oxley discusses running the Guardian’s bicentenary project and hopes for its legacy.
These interviews were recorded for posterity and will be available for researchers to look back on in ten years’ time - but a few interviewees opted to open theirs early as part of the Guardian’s 200th birthday celebrations. For details of the audio interviews available to researchers, please consult our online archive catalogue.
This series of interviews builds on the existing oral history collections of the GNM archive, details of which are available on our website and online catalogue.
