Scott Trust Limited

The Scott Trust Limited is the British company that owns Guardian Media Group and thus The Guardian and The Observer as well as various other media businesses in the UK. In 2008, it replaced the Scott Trust, which had owned the Guardian since 1936.

The company is responsible for appointing the editor of The Guardian (and those of the group's other main newspapers) but, apart from enjoining them to continue the paper's editorial policy on "the same lines and in the same spirit as heretofore", it has a policy of not interfering in their decisions. The arrangement tends to give editors a long tenure: for example, last incumbent, Alan Rusbridger, had been there from 1995 until 2015.

The current chair of the Scott Trust Board is Alex Graham, who replaced Liz Forgan in 2016. Other board members include the current editor-in-chief Katharine Viner, Guardian finance editor Nils Pratley who is the journalist director of the board, and one member of the Scott family.

The Trust was established in 1936 by John Scott, owner of the Manchester Guardian (as it then was) and the Manchester Evening News. After the deaths in quick succession of his father C. P. Scott and brother Edward, and consequent threat of death duties, John Scott wished to prevent future death duties forcing the closure or sale of the newspapers, and to protect the liberal editorial line of the Guardian from interference by future proprietors. The first and only Chairman of the first Trust was John Scott.

The Trust was dissolved and reformed in 1948, as it was thought that the Trust, under the terms of the original Trust Deed, had become liable to tax due to changes in the law. At this time John Scott also gave up his exclusive right to appoint trustees; the trustees would henceforth appoint new members themselves. Five months after the signing of the new Trust Deed, John Scott died. After three years of legal argument, the Inland Revenue gave up its claim for death duty.

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