The Guardian’s new editor-in-chief has re-enforced that the title will not be implementing a paywall as part of its strategy to improve its financial performance – but does want to see increased ‘membership’ and better quality advertising.
Speaking at Newsworks’ Shift 2016 on Tuesday, Katharine Viner – who last month announced that the business is looking to cut costs by 20% over the next three years – outlined plans for a digitally-focused, “sustainable” future built on “deeper relationships” with readers and advertisers.
“The future is digital and we should be investing in that,” Viner said. “I really believe having a closer relationship with readers is better for journalism – as well as having commercial benefits.
“We’re not going to be introducing a paywall; it’s about getting [our readers] to pay in different ways.”
One of the Guardian’s current strategies is to invite loyal readers to become ‘members’ with packages ranging from £5 per month as a ‘supporter’ to £60 per month as a ‘patron’.
With declining print revenues and slower-than-expected growth in digital revenues no longer able to sustain outgoings, Guardian News & Media unveiled ambitious cost reduction plans earlier this year that will look to shave off more than £53 million from its current £268 million annual budget and break even by 2018/19.
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As part of those plans, Viner, who replaced Alan Rusbridger in June 2015 to become the first female editor-in-chief of the Guardian, said that greater emphasis needs to be placed on the quality of digital advertising.
“Journalistically, it’s a brilliant time; but at the same time, the commercial model is undermined at all points,” Viner said.
“Fewer people are buying papers, advertisers are leaving print and digital advertising is going to Facebook and Google quite dramatically in the last year.
“Our instinct on advertising generally is that we should do fewer, better ads.”
However, while seeming fairly optimistic about the title’s digital future – guardian.com is currently the second most-popular UK news site with an 8.8m-strong daily audience – when asked whether she believes in the death of print, Viner replied: “I don’t know.”
“We should be producing really good newspapers – the Guardian and the Observer should be as good as we can make them,” she said.
“I think the future is digital…but there are different sorts of readers and we should look after all of them.”
However, the figures do speak for themselves. The Guardian’s print business has been in steady decline for some years, dropping -6.7% between December 2014 and December 2015.
During that time, print advertising fell by an estimated -25%, and as a result of otherwise healthy digital revenues unable to keep up with a fast decline in print, GNM operating losses for the year ending March 2016 are expected to be as high as £52 million.
Once the Independent closes at the end of this month, the Guardian newspaper will become the worst-performing national title.
