Guardian targets £7m editorial cut after £44m loss
The Guardian and Observer made a loss of £44.2 million last year and will be downsized in order to save around £7 million in editorial expenditure.
Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of the Guardian and executive editor of the Observer said that the newspaper group needed to become “smaller”.
A programme of voluntary redundancies has been re-opened, with around 70 to 100 post cuts being sought from a current staff body of 650.
Rusbridger said during a company briefing: “[The Guardian and Observer] will do less, less of what’s called commodity journalism, so that we can do more on our core purpose and the type of journalism that we’re here to do”.
Operational savings made to date have been used to fund the expansion of the Guardian‘s operations online and in the US, savings which include around 300 redundancies.
Despite the £44.2 million loss, both newspapers saw a growth of 16.3% in digital revenues to £45.7 million – of this number, digital advertising increased by 26% to £14.7 million.
Speaking on the situation with the titles, Andrew Miller, chief executive of Guardian Media Group said that there was “much work to be done”, but the online success of Guardian News & Media (the Guardian and Observer) gave cause for positivity.
The free websites of the two papers reach 5.8 million people in print and online, 300,000 more than The Times, while around 17,000 people subscribe to the Guardian iPad app, at £9.99 per month.
The Guardian and Observer garnered overall revenue of £196.2 million in the year to 31 March – a drop of £2 million on last year’s £198.2 million figure.
The most recent ABC newspaper figures show that Guardian sales were down by 17.% year-on-year for June, while the Observer was down by 15.6%.
Guardian News & Media’s targeted £7 million savings are part of a £25 million expenditure reduction programme. Company executives have stated their belief that this year’s losses of £44.2 million will be the “high water mark” before the beginning of the five year savings plan.
Overall 2011/2012 figures for Guardian Media Group reveal an increase of nearly £30 million in cash and short-term bank investments from the end of 2010/2011 – from £197.4 million to £225.8 million.
Full Guardian Media Group financial results wil be published next month, and are set to include figures for the two newspapers.