John Russell Scott

John Russell Scott (12 July 1879 – 5 April 1949) was a British publisher and media proprietor. As managing director and later chairman and governing director of The Manchester Guardian and Evening News Ltd, he oversaw the 1924 acquisition of the Manchester Evening News by the Manchester Guardian, bringing both titles under common ownership. In 1936 he created the Scott Trust to preserve the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian "as nearly as may be upon the same principles" on which it had been run before.

Early life Scott was born in Manchester, the second son and third child of editor Charles Prestwich Scott and Rachel Susan Cook. Career At the request of his father, Scott became managing director of the Manchester Guardian in 1905.

On 1 January 1932, C. P. Scott died at the age of 85, and control passed to his son Edward Taylor Scott; however, Edward drowned four months later, whereupon John Russell Scott became the sole controlling owner of the company. He continued to run the group on restrained managerial pay and reinvested profits in the newspapers' growth and facilities.

Scott Trust In June 1936, to prevent future death duties from forcing a sale or jeopardising independence, Scott transferred ownership of the Manchester Guardian and Manchester Evening News, valued at over £1 million, to a new trust (the Scott Trust). The trust deed required that the papers be "carried on, as nearly as may be, upon the same principles as heretofore".

Death Scott died in Manchester on 5 April 1949, aged 69. He had asked that, on his death, little should be said of him, that he had been "only a businessman" and had "done nothing". The New York Times wrote that "he kept the Guardian's purpose high, its vision clear, its spirit strong and fresh". His obituary in The Guardian praised his modesty and "wise business management", crediting him with safeguarding the paper's independence through the trust structure that still underpins The Guardian's ownership.