Guardian discusses plan to close The Observer

by Staff, Brand Republic 02-Aug-09, 18:00

LONDON - The Guardian Media Group is understood to have given serious thought to a radical plan that would see The Observer newspaper closed as part of an effort to cut costs and secure the future of The Guardian.

According to a report in the Sunday Times, the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian Media Group, discussed the idea at a board meeting on July 6.

The paper said that the plan put forward proposed closing The Observer and turning it into a weekly news magazine, which would be published on a Thursday.

However, the plan was opposed by some Scott Trust members including Larry Elliott, who represents journalists on the board of the charitable foundation.

Those at the meeting agreed to put the plan on hold while alternative options were examined, including the idea of keeping The Observer going, but in a slimmed down form.

If GMG, headed by chief executive Carolyn McCall, pursued this option it would almost certainly mean more redundancies at the paper. These would come on top of the 50 editorial redundancies Guardian News & Media, which owns both papers, plans in 2009.

News of a possible closure of The Observer follows GN&M last week reporting operating losses of £36.8m in the year to March 2009. These were up from £26.4m last time.

The news group said it was experiencing "the toughest trading conditions seen for many years" as turnover fell to £253.6m from £261.9m in 2008. Overall Guardian Media Group reported pre-tax losses of nearly £90m.

Another possible option would be to sell the paper, which was first printed towards the end of the eighteenth century in 1791. It has been owned by the Guardian since 1993.

Rumours about a possible sale of the paper have surfaced before, but not for a number of years.

In its most recent ABC figure, The Observer was up 1.1% to 409,970 month on month, but down 6.36% year on year.

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Comments

Oliver Gandy - 03/08/2009

It would be a real shame if The Observer closed: it's consistently the best Sunday paper by a long way. Can't GMG just stop publishing The Grauniad all week instead?