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October 23, 2007

Guardian America: British paper's Washington-based site launches

Guardian America, the American version of the liberal British news site, has launched.

Quick impressions:
-- They get a lot on their homepage without a sense of clutter.
-- They can probably sell a lot of American ads while repurposing their English content.
-- Their American editorial staff will focus on politics.
-- The top two stories are about America -- Hillary Clinton and the California fires, followed by international news. Some of the rest of it is baffling:

Slowly, quietly, Rooney is starting to fulfil his potential
Kevin McCarra: Man Utd man only just hitting his stride as he turns 22.

It's about an English soccer star. No World Series news.

Guardian on Guardian:

The Guardian today launched its US website with an exclusive interview with presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The site, Guardianamerica.com, has been designed for the Guardian's growing US audience, which now accounts for nearly a third of Guardian Unlimited's readership.

In the latest audited ABCe figures for August, Guardian Unlimited had 15.9 million unique users, of which the company estimates 5.1 million came from the US.

Guardian America has an editorial team of eight based in Washington and is edited by US journalist and author Michael Tomasky. (Formerly editor of The American Prospect.)
The site will draw on the resources of the Guardian's UK and international journalism, tailoring the presentation of stories to a US audience.

Over time the site will introduce reader services such as holidays and dating, and will eventually include opportunities for recruitment advertising....

And a style note (Do we realise what we're doing?):

Guardian America, the US edition of the British newspaper, won't use American spellings and punctuation. What will make it a Guardian publication will be its adherence to the Guardian stylebook, a volume that since the 1920s has gone through several editions and revisions and which is available in bookshops and here on the Guardian's website.

Valour, behaviour, realise and programme therefore will prevail over valor, behavior, realize and program. Nor will there be the serial comma - sometimes known, pretentiously, as the Oxford comma - which is familiar to many American publications. You've noticed I left out the comma after realise - that's where the serial comma would have been placed. Gone is much italicisation - and the 'z' from many -isations. The Guardian is the Guardian, not The Guardian.

There's always room for more good journalism. I hope this isn't just an advertising vehicle.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 12:30 PM | Permalink