GMG Considering Sell Off For Loss Making Observer
The Guardian Media Group is understood to be considering a sell off of its Sunday newspaper, the Observer, following its inability to return a profit ahead of a massive £50 million investment in its week day stable mate, the Guardian.
Reports over the weekend indicated that the Observer could be sold to enable GMG to concentrate more fully on its revised Berliner format Guardian, due to launch in 2006 (see Guardian Takes Titles Compact With £50 Million Investment).
It had been thought that both newspapers would receive a makeover, but a report in the Financial Mail on Sunday stated that informal meetings with interested parties have already been held by GMG, with rival newspaper publishers and private equity groups believed to be amongst those willing to buy the Observer.
According to GMG the newspaper is still being considered for a redesign, with a spokesman branding the reports of a sell off “wholly without foundation”. However, the Observer‘s continued losses are understood to have made a large contribution to GMG’s £6.2 million loss last year.
The Observer has seen its circulation increase over the past five years, recovering from a slump in 1998 and 1999 to add 9.3% and command a total circulation of just over 453,000 today.
A recent management reshuffle at Guardian Newspapers also indicates that a long term plan for the Observer is still very much in place, with Stuart Taylor, currently advertisement director, taking on the new role of commercial director with a focus on the future Guardian and Observer format changes, and their effects on the advertising industry (see Guardian Strengthens Advertising Team With Reshuffle).
GMG has also ploughed investment into digital editions of the Guardian and Observer, following in the footsteps of the Times and the Telegraph with the launch of e-papers that replicate the layout of their print editions in terms of copy, advertising and images (see Guardian And Observer Launch Digital Editions).
Guardian Media Group: 020 7713 4452 www.gmgplc.co.uk/
Recent Newspaper Stories from NewsLine NRS National Newspaper Round-Up Metro Plans Recruitment Magazine For Women ABC National Newspaper Round-Up – October 2004
Subscribers can access ten years of media news and analysis in the Archive