Guardian gives republican readers opportunity to screen out royal baby coverage

The Guardian is giving republican readers the option to screen out royal baby coverage on its website.

The front page of the paper’s website lets readers the opportunity to click a ‘Republican?’ button to replace coverage of the Duchess of Cambridge going into labour with non-royal news.

The website, the second largest in the UK after Mail Online, also offered readers the same opportunity for the royal wedding and last year’s Diamond Jubilee.

So royalists can catch up with moment by moment coverage from outside the St Mary's hospital in London by clicking through on the enormous pic of Kate on the standard front page:

While republicans are offered a Kate-less main homepage:

No such restraint from number one newspaper website in the world, Mail Online, which is currently leading is main homepage with five royal baby stories – plus a live cam from outside the hospital:

A Guardian News and Media spokesperson said: "While the birth of a new heir to the throne is a major news story, we know some of our readers would rather read a little less of our comprehensive coverage than others.

"So, as with the Royal Wedding and the Diamond Jubilee, we've offered them the chance to hide Royal Baby news from our desktop website homepage with our republican/royalist button."