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Observer employees plan supplement-free version to save their newspaper from Guardian branding
Gideon Spanier07.08.09
Journalists at the Observer are working on plans for a radically slimmed-down version of the Sunday newspaper in a bid to stop parent company, Guardian Media Group, from closing it.
The proposals could see the Observer dropping some of its print supplements and merging them into the main news section to cut costs.
The standalone City section and the travel supplement could both be axed. The TV magazine was dropped last month.
GMG admitted it is considering closing the 218-year-old title — the world's oldest Sunday newspaper — after the parent company recorded an £89.8 million annual loss last week.
Chief executive Carolyn McCall said she is looking at a range of cost-cutting options, which are said to include turning the Observer into a weekly magazine, to be published in midweek.
Senior Observer journalists were furious when they discovered last week that a prototype version of the news magazine had secretly been prepared for the charitable Scott Trust, GMG's owner.
But industry sources said it is highly unlikely that GMG, whose flagship title is the Guardian, would abandon the Sunday newspaper market as that would mean its printing presses standing idle one day a week. GMG directors are also understood to have discussed renaming the Sunday title with Guardian branding — such as The Guardian on Sunday — and there are unconfirmed reports that the Scott Trust has already received a presentation to that effect.
GMG declined to comment. The Scott Trust is committed to protecting the Guardian “in perpetuity” but there is no such responsibility for the Observer, which GMG bought in 1993.
Observer journalists are hoping that reader anger will persuade GMG to rethink its plans and Independent editor, Roger Alton, who served as editor of the Observer for a decade until 2007, told Radio 4 the proposal to close the paper is “foolish” given its loyal readership.
A Facebook website campaign to “save The Observer” has received 3800 signatories since Monday.
GMG does not break down losses at the Guardian and the Observer but its national newspaper division lost £36.8 million last year as advertising slumped.
The Guardian is believed to be responsible for the bulk of the losses. Sources close to GMG said losses at the Observer were far below a reported figure of £20 million and Alton said losses were likely to be less than £10 million.
The Observer sells around 410,000 copies a week. The Guardian has a daily circulation of around 336,000 — 290,000 on weekdays and 525,000 on Saturdays.
Reader views (16)
Observer has been dragged to where it is by the ridiculous Guardian regime. They have made it what it is - Save the OBSERVER!Where's Tony O'Reilly when you need him??
- Andrew Wood, Marlow UK
the Observer could charge for the different supplement bits separately -- that should bring in , ..... uhm .... very little - ie most are thrown in the recycling immediately as said before . Who was asked if they wanted the 'drivel' ? And what pollution would be saved by less paper&newsprint processing - a good selling point .
Yes a slimmed down Sunday paper without the dross , but with concise well written , logical , factually informative reports would be unbelievable - who'd bother to read anything else ?
- Martin, Cinderford, England
Not quite sure why Tony can't read his computer and eat his breakfast at the same time - he managed to read and eat lunch when working at the Guardian (we used to work in the same team).
He also used to write quite a bit a bit about property too.....
- Jill, London
I wasn't even aware the Observer was still going until I was late getting my Sunday Times a couple of weeks ago and it was the only paper left on the shelf. As for the Guardian, you can't get rid of it, what would Private Eye mock mercilessly instead?
- Bob, Cheam
One thing I can't understand...
If advertising is dropping off the proverbial cliff, why are so many newspaper GROANING with supplements? Such a waste of paper.
- Alex Mckenna, Manchester
I wrote to the Observer years ago to register my antithesis to the bugeoning "bumpf" you were adding to the paper - sports monthly, women's monthly, food monthly, escape, etc etc and to say that forthwith I would stop buying the Observer. It is utterly ridiculous that you ever imagined that all that "stuff" was of any value and that the business model would work. Even I as a layperson could have foreseen what is now happening. You've ruined a great paper and now it's on its deathbed. If you do manage to keep it alive just print the main paper (incorporating the business section, sport and even the review) with a separate magazine. Get rid of all the rest and some of the journalists too! (Who wants to read Barbara Ellen's take on things?)
- Christo, London, UK
"The Guardian is believed to be responsible for the bulk of the losses."
...I'm not surprised. The Guardian is a rubbish paper, full of lies about so-called "man-made global warming". On this issue, they wouldn't know the truth if it bit them in the face. If they go bust, it serves them right. Good riddance. It's what happens when you employ bigots like George Monbiot to fill your pages. Anyone with an IQ bigger than a rubber plant dumped The Guardian a long time ago.
- Kate, London
Well I sort of agree with Tony Levene about focussing on important issues - except that I would exclude sport too (Observer sports section is rubbish)- in fact I really wouldn't miss any of the Observer except (very much)for the main paper, most of it goes unread to the recycling bin. As long as it's suitably cheaper and they don't make the IoS mistake of trying to cram all the old bits into one very confused and unwieldy paper, a slimmed down Observer would be okay. (Oh and I really, really like the Berliner size, Tony - it's just perfect).
But it should definitely stay a Sunday publication - I like the Sunday Times, but one does need a bit of Observer ginger in the mix.
- Brian, London
Heres the chance that we on the Left have always been crying out for ... a paper on our side, that speaks the truth. Why can't the Party, the Unions and anybody else interested in the freedom of speech, get together and buy it off the Guardian. The Observer could then be printed as a Daily, with a Weekend Edition. Its the last chance the Left has to put its case in a Media dominated by the Right.
- Dhan Raj, Basildon
An intelligent, slimmed down Sunday paper would sell well. I feel really guilty about the amount of newsprint which goes unread into the recycling box. Let's have more in depth investigations with serious purpose and less dross. Get a tabloid for the dross. I don't suppose a reduction in price is on the cards though!
- Jilly, London
They could combine the Guardian's very readable Saturday magazine with the Observer's pretty uninteresting mag, publish it on Sunday and with a small 8-pp newspaper inside.
- Kevin, New malden
I agree that a "slimmed down" Observer could potentially be a good idea. There is already too much superfluous bumf in most Sunday papers so to produce an intelligent streamlined newspaper for people to read on a Sunday is an excellent and practical idea! I wish them good luck.
- Cyberschizoid, Brighton, UK
well said, Tony Levene and Mike Burmester.
- Mary, London
Paying £2 for a product that is largely unread and ends up in recycling is a waste. I want real news (politics sports), not travel puffs or tedious fashion spreads or property or pointless magazine articles. It's time for newspapers to once again run stories that "people featured in them don't want published." Sunday papers should feature long term investigations which bring change. So out with the soft and bring in the hard.
I don't want to rely on the internet for news (I can't read the computer while eating my breakfast for starters)
and I don't want my newspaper delivery person to break her/his back with these ludicrously large papers.
As an ex-Guardian employee, I wonder whether editor Rushbridger would still be there if Guardian Media was subject to shareholder scrutiny. The £70m Berliner move was a disaster. The circulation graph is similar to the Telegraph where nothing was spent on shape change. The presses can't be used for anything else. And after all that money, Rushbridger announced print was dead. Ouch!!!
- Tony Levene, Harrow
Observer journalists should pin the blame on bankers which should help their owners receive a bail out from you and me the taxpayer and ensure no one is held accountable, faces a court case for gross wrong doing etc. Easy really.
- Jim, London
Oddly, a slimmed down Observer could be attractive for the busy reader.At the moment, a multi section Sunday paper is a turn-off.
- Mike Burmester, Bristol UK
