Who Owns The Guardian?

When you ask Who owns The Guardian, The Guardian is a major British newspaper known for its independent journalism and progressive stance. It is not owned by a wealthy individual, a foreign conglomerate, or a public company. Instead, it’s held by the Scott Trust, a private trust established in 1936 to safeguard The Guardian’s editorial independence. This structure is rare in modern media—most newspapers are bought and sold like assets. But The Guardian’s ownership model was built to prevent profit-driven decisions from shaping its reporting. The Guardian Media Group, the parent company that runs The Guardian and other publications like The Observer, operates under the Scott Trust’s rules. That means any profits are reinvested into journalism, not paid out to shareholders. No one can buy it. No one can shut it down for financial reasons. The trust exists to ensure the paper stays true to its mission: holding power to account, no matter the cost.

This isn’t just a legal footnote—it changes how the news is made. While other outlets chase clicks, chase ratings, or chase corporate sponsors, The Guardian answers to a different set of priorities. Its funding comes from readers, not ads or billionaires. Its editorial team has more freedom because the owners aren’t looking for quarterly returns. You’ll see this in its coverage: deep investigations into government surveillance, climate policy, and inequality—not because they’re trendy, but because they matter. The Scott Trust doesn’t care about viral headlines. It cares about lasting impact. That’s why, even as print newspapers collapsed, The Guardian invested in digital journalism and became one of the most visited news sites in the UK.

People often assume big media is controlled by powerful figures. Rupert Murdoch owns Fox and The Sun. Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. But The Guardian? It’s owned by a group of trustees whose only job is to protect the paper’s values. That’s why you won’t find it pushing partisan agendas the way some outlets do. It’s not left-wing because it’s owned by activists—it’s left-wing because its readers and journalists believe in social justice, transparency, and fairness. And that’s exactly why the Scott Trust still exists today: to keep it that way.

What you’ll find in the articles below are deep dives into how media ownership shapes what you read, how The Guardian’s structure compares to other major papers, and why this model might be the only way left to save serious journalism in the digital age.