John Russell Scott (12 July 1879 – 5 April 1949) was a British publisher. He was the owner of the ''

Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' and the ''

Manchester Evening News The ''Manchester Evening News'' (''MEN'') is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the ''MEN on Sunday'', was launched in February 201 ...

''.

Early life

Scott was born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, the third child of

C. P. Scott Charles Prestwich Scott (26 October 1846 – 1 January 1932), usually cited as C. P. Scott, was a British journalist, publisher and politician. Born in Bath, Somerset, he was the editor of the ''Manchester Guardian'' (now ''the Guardian'') ...

and his wife Rachel Susan Cook. Scott attended

Rugby School Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. Up ...

and studied engineering at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

and the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

Career

At the request of his father, Scott took over the post of managing director of the ''Guardian'' in 1905. After the death of his brother

Edward Taylor Scott Edward Taylor Scott (15 November 1883 – 22 April 1932) was a British journalist, who was editor and briefly co-owner of the ''Manchester Guardian'', and the younger son of its editor-owner C. P. Scott. After a brief spell at Oxford University, ...

in 1932, he became the sole majority owner of the publishing company The Manchester Guardian and Evening News Ltd as chairman and Governing Director.

Scott Trust

In 1936 he transferred control of the publisher and its periodicals to a newly created trust, the Scott Trust, so as to ensure the independence of the newspapers and their reporting. Scott was the first and only chairman of this first Scott Trust, which was dissolved in 1948, after a tax law was changed so that this type of trust was also subject to inheritance tax, and a new statute was created. In 2008 the trust was dissolved again and replaced with The

Scott Trust Limited 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'' s ...

, which is the owner of the Guardian to the present.

Personal life

In 1908 Scott married Olga Briggs, with whom he had two sons and two daughters. He lived in

Wilmslow Wilmslow ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England, south of Manchester city centre. The population was 24,497 at the 2011 Census. History Toponymy Wilmslow derives its name from Old ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, John Russell British publishers (people) 1879 births 1949 deaths