Posts Tagged ‘the guardian’
Guardian’s digital focus reflects the general trend, but without a Paywall
June 17th, 2011
Yesterday’s announcement that The Guardian has made a £33m cash loss over the last year is yet more proof, if any were needed, that newspapers are continuing to struggle in the face of declining advertising and growing competition in providing news first and fast.
To be precise the results for the year ending 31 March showed that revenues at Guardian News & Media fell to £198m last year compared with £221m the year before. Recruitment advertising also fell by £41m over the past four years.
Newspaper publishers worldwide have taken different approaches to recovering lost revenue streams, ranging from the obvious option of charging for online content, which has worked for specialist publications such as The FT and WSJ, but not so much for those that are not differentiated from free competitors, i.e. The Times.
The Guardian’s response, or at least the Guardian Media Group’s (GMG) response is to focus on a “digital-first” strategy, with a view to doubling digital revenues to nearly £100m by 2016.
Guardian editor, Alan Rusbridger said: “By becoming a digital-first organisation, we’re taking the next natural step, one which we believe all newspapers will eventually have to take.”
This will inevitably mean job losses, but no details were given yesterday.
A digital first approach makes sense for The Guardian as although its hard copy may have a modest readership in comparison to competitors, its online entity is usually one of the top three in the UK.
Therefore, the Guardian’s focus over the next five years will be to reallocate £25 ($40.24) million investment to digital areas, which was originally earmarked for print. The direct affect of this digital focus will be to shrink the printed newspaper away from breaking news and in to a smaller, less resource-intensive edition that leads on analysis, all by March 2012.
This move is based on research that showed that half of readers read the newspaper in the evening, and the aim is to create a title that would be “as relevant at 9am as 9pm“, meaning news becomes less of a focus.
Quotes by Guardian Media Group’s CEO Andrew Miller, given to Paid Content, also offer a refreshingly honest insight into the issues facing newspaper publishing: “We now have a financial imperative we didn’t have before. The financial pressure all newspapers are facing through the shift is such that our losses are increasing and I can’t see a way of those not decreasing without first making ourselves digital-first.
“All newspapers will ultimately exit print. But we’re putting no timeframe on that. This is about repositioning the business to be digital-first. I don’t know if anyone’s said that before at a major newspaper. It’s about finding the right format for newspapers in our portfolio.”
So instead of going for the paid content route, The Guardian will try to grow its audience in the U.S where it’s New York readers especially have become important, meaning more ad revenue potential.
Andrew Miller confirmed: “In a digital environment, the trick is to generate lots of business. America will be a core part of that, but so will Soulmates (The Guardian’s dating service) … our digital revenue on recruitment now is greater than from print, we want to build on that. The corollary is a move in to U.S. classified ads, as well as the display market.”
The Guardian is also in a comparatively strong position compared to its rivals as it is owned by a trust and supported by two publishing businesses. To put that into perspective, GMG has cash and investment fund reserves of £197.5m available, which has grown by £12m over the last year.
This approach from the Guardian will be keenly monitored by its competitors, who in the main have simply thrown up a paywall in an attempt to stem the tide of losses, and with limited success.
A real focus on analysis in the hard copy and news and engagement online makes sense, and I hope this can be a viable future for a newspaper publisher that has consistently broken new ground online.
Guardian tech journo Bobbie Johnson moving to San Francisco
August 19th, 2008
News has crossed the Twitter-sphere that Bobbie Johnson, technology correspondent for The Guardian, is moving to San Francisco at the start of September, to report from the heart of Silicon Valley.
If, like me, you sit within the technology/digital industry, you might be interested to read Bobbie’s explanation for his move on his blog, here.
His move offers some hints at how the Guardian tech news agenda might be shifting over coming months, at a time when the UK is heading for economic gloom: “I arrive in the middle of an almost-perfect storm; in the midst of an election cycle, and at a time when the Silicon Valley scene is (arguably) more powerful than ever. There’s a boom on, and lots of interesting things taking place. It’s an incredibly exciting time, and I’m privileged to be given the chance to help the Guardian push further out into the US and into the technology sector…Our coverage - which is also provided by my colleagues who’ll remain in the UK - won’t be all about the Valley, but I will be able to offer up a view from the heartland of the hi-tech industry - one that we haven’t had before.”
I’ve predicted for a while that UK journalists will increasingly need to focus more on analysis/feature writing, and less on news reporting, and so I’ll be keen to see how the Guardian makes best use of its new San Fran stringer!