Exclusive - UK's Guardian could go tabloid, switch to rival's presses: sources

[webfact]

Exclusive - UK's Guardian could go tabloid, switch to rival's presses: sources

By Paul Sandle

REUTERS

 

Copies of the Guardian newspaper are displayed at a news agent in London August 21, 2013. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Guardian newspaper is considering becoming a tabloid and outsourcing printing to a rival such as Rupert Murdoch's News UK as one of a series of options to cut costs, sources told Reuters.

 

Publisher Guardian Media Group (GMG) said last year it needed to make savings of 20 percent to stem underlying losses that widened to 62.6 million pounds ($78 million) for the year to April 3. It said it was aiming to break even in three years.

 

"The company is working on a whole range of efficiency projects and the print programme fits into that," one source close to the company said on Monday.

 

GMG prints both the Guardian and its Sunday stablemate The Observer on special presses bought more than 11 years ago when it switched from a broadsheet to the mid-sized Berliner format.

 

Editorially, the left-leaning Guardian has clashed with Murdoch's <NWSA.O> British newspapers, notably in bringing to light the phone-hacking scandal that resulted in the closure of his News of the World tabloid in 2011.

 

On a business level, however, the two groups are collaborating, along with Trinity Mirror <TNI.L> and Telegraph Media Group, on Project Rio, a plan to pool newspaper advertising sales.

 

Daily Mail publisher DMGT <DMGOa.L> pulled out of the initiative this month, according to reports.

 

"The discussions explored a number of other areas of co-operation," one source said.

 

Another source said GMG was considering a plan to move production to News UK's presses later this year, and change the format to a tabloid in the process.

 

Rival publishers' presses are set up to print in broadsheet and tabloid formats. The Berliner format can still be produced using cutting equipment, although it would increase costs, the other source said.

 

Any saving in production costs from moving to a tabloid if the group decided to change printers would need to be weighed against the cost of redesigning the paper, the source said.

 

GMG is owned by The Scott Trust, created in 1936 to safeguard its flagship newspaper.

 

SCOOPS

 

The newspaper's scoops include U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelation about mass surveillances as well as the phone hacking scandal, and its online edition is one of the most popular in the world.

 

A deterioration in the advertising market has led to widening losses, however, and the group cut jobs last year under a turnaround plan led by editor in chief Katharine Viner and Chief Executive David Pemsel.

 

The Guardian abandoned the broadsheet size in 2005, but unlike its rivals The Independent and The Times which went tabloid, it choose the Berliner, a format long established in continental Europe but little known in Britain.

 

GMG spent 50 million pounds ($62 million) on presses from German engineer Man Roland, according to a Guardian article published in 2009, and another 30 million on new print sites in London's Stratford and in Trafford Park in Manchester.

 

Print sales of the newspaper rose following the change and an associated redesign, but the boost was short lived.

 

Its average sale in October was 157,778 copies, according to ABC, fewer than half the number of copies sold in 2005, resulting in under-utilised presses.

 

A spokesman for the Guardian declined to comment on speculation regarding future print allocation.

 

News UK's NewsPrinters operation has sites in Broxbourne, near London, Knowsley in north-west England and Motherwell, Scotland, where it prints The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times, as well as The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and the Financial Times for other publishers.

 

A News UK spokeswoman said: "NewsPrinters is an active industry printer and is always looking at new opportunities.

 

"However, we don't comment on any business matters that may relate to third-party contracts."

 

($1 = 0.8015 pounds)

 

(Editing by Susan Thomas)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-01-24

[retarius]

Editorially it turned into a tabloid rag some years ago. The venerable and esteemed (Manchester) Guardian has turned into a neo-con establishment mouthpiece.

[i claudius]

The Guardian
The thinking mans toilet paper.

Sent from my ASUS_T00J using Tapatalk

[Grouse]

1 hour ago, retarius said:

Editorially it turned into a tabloid rag some years ago. The venerable and esteemed (Manchester) Guardian has turned into a neo-con establishment mouthpiece.

Well I agree that The Manchester Guardian is not what is was, but Neocon? Goodness me....

[RuamRudy]

I don't read the print version so often, but I very liked the switch to the Berliner format - tabloid seems so tacky in comparison.

[Retiredandhappyhere]

With the Guardian's poor sales record, perhaps it would be more in keeping with events if it were, instead of changing to the tabloid format, to change to a postage stamp size, which would certainly save costs and represent the size of its readership more fully?

[d123]

I wonder why Reuters broke this story and not the Grauniad?

[Cats4ever]

The printed press is under pressure everywhere. I used to love The Guardian when I was in UK in the early 70's. I read it a bit now on my tablet (as a supporter). Only the awful Rupert ( US citizen) and his tits and sensation papers seem to be surviving, sort of. This is probably because of the vastly improved education systems of the last few decades.

[i claudius]

I see that they are broke so moving their head office to Manchester from London , poor lefty luvvie Polly and co will have to mix with the oiks lol

Sent from my SM-A720F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[champers]

They offer some balance, even if you don't like them. I don't want a press dominated by one political hue. Too many same, same newspapers: Sun and Star, Mail and Express, Times and Telegraph.

[SheungWan]

Most guys I know who access and read the free Guardian website are too mean to send them anything accept peanuts to financially support the newspaper.

[simple1]

On 24/01/2017 at 10:29 PM, i claudius said:

The Guardian
The thinking mans toilet paper.

Sent from my ASUS_T00J using Tapatalk
 

The Guardian wins awards for journalistic excellence, Newspaper of the Year, supports awards for University achievements and so on. What awards for excellence has your preferred media outlet achieved?

Edited April 7, 2017 by simple1

[maewang99]

this is how we got Trump....

at some point anything that you don't have to pay for.... is what you should stay away from.

including "free" blogs and blog writing especially on sites like this.  with or without more adverts. 

it's obvious from the comments here on what is certainly a very good daily read.  The Guardian provides coverage that you can't get elsewhere.. is anything but tabloid.. but is expensive to provide.  and I don't want the NY Times to be the only thing there is.

 

  

Edited April 8, 2017 by maewang99

[Rimmer]

A troll/flame has been removed also one reply to it

[naboo]

Politically, The Guardian has lost its way. It holds its support for the neo-liberal New Labour ideology and has far too much feminist and politically correct nonsense. New Labour is dead and instead of looking at ways for the left to move forward The Guardian just looks for the next Blair.

 

They should be embracing with positivity the work Momentum and Jeremy Corbyn are doing to get the disillusioned left involved in politics again whilst looking to promote future Labour leaders who can bring together Momentum and the Centre Left before the next election. Instead, The Guardian is alienating much of its core readership.

[i claudius]

Earlier i said the guardian was good toilet paper,well if it goes online ,thats the end of a good bum wiper

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[Wilsonandson]

Now just waiting for the daily telegraph and the daily times to go tabloid. I wonder if the guardian will have a page 3 girl?

[lungbing]

Diane Abbott?

[3NUMBAS]

A tawdry left wing rag who's losing labour readers at a rapid rate...Feeding bremoaners nowadays...Very censorial on any freedom of speech they don't like..Biased to remoaners 

[SheungWan]

8 hours ago, 3NUMBAS said:

A tawdry left wing rag who's losing labour readers at a rapid rate...Feeding bremoaners nowadays...Very censorial on any freedom of speech they don't like..Biased to remoaners 

If its 'tawdry' you are after, look no further than the virulently pro-Brexit Daily Express with its ownership prior links to sterling publications such as Asian Babes.

Edited April 9, 2017 by SheungWan

[ballpoint]

2 hours ago, SheungWan said:

If its 'tawdry' you are after, look no further than the virulently pro-Brexit Daily Express with its ownership prior links to sterling publications such as Asian Babes.

Asian Babes? Do they swing to the left or right?

[Prbkk]

Another 5 or 10 years and there will be no printed newspapers left and few magazines. This year the Melbourne Age will stop the print edition...published since 1854 but circulation down to under 100,000.

Starting the day with a coffee and an iPad can never replace the hard copy, at least for me.