The global news brand The Guardian According to a British report, the company will soon report more than doubling its annual loss.
The analysis comes from a former managing director of Australia’s largest magazine publisher. Colin Morrison moved to Australia in the 2000s, where he ran ACP Magazines for five years. The company was later acquired by the Bauer Group and, following private equity investment, is now known as Are Media.
Morrison is currently publishing a newsletter entitled Lightning and flames here the report about The Guardian appeared.
The times I also picked up Morrison’s report over the weekend under the headline “Guardian staff prepare for job cuts as GMG reports losses of almost £40m”.
The times reported The Guardianwhich is owned by the Scott Trust, a charity founded in 1936 that funds the newspaper “in perpetuity”, is expected to report a cash outflow of £39m in the financial year to the end of March when it files accounts with the Companies House at the end of September. Last year the cash outflow was £17m.
Along with its latest annual results, the media group will also announce a reorganization plan next month, which Flashes & Flames says is expected to result in savings in personnel and operating costs.
Morrison wrote about how The Guardian The move to become more “global” may have contributed to the poor performance.
“It is almost too ironic that the 2022-23 results announced in July last year boasted of revenue growth, careful cost management and a commitment to a three-year strategy to become more ‘global’ and create more jobs. Fast forward to 2024 and the company is set for cuts,” Morrison said.
“While most other traditional media continue to cut staff, GMG (Guardian Media Group) has done the opposite. Staff costs now account for an estimated 55 percent of GMG’s total costs, compared to 49 percent in 2020.”
The Guardian responds: Global strategy will not stop
A Guardian spokesman was quoted in The times: “We have not yet published our financial results and do not recognize some of the claims made in the blog mentioned in this article. The Guardian has had a record year for reader revenues and our supporter base is growing. By comparison, many other news organizations are more dependent on a difficult advertising market.
“We are making important investments over the next few years as we focus on our strategy to become more global, digital and reader-funded. Like all news titles, we are reviewing our cost of doing business so we can adapt to changes in our industry.”
Beginning of the year Media Week reported that The Guardian’s parent company will suffer a loss of £39 million ($75.5 million) amid a collapse in the digital advertising market.
Guardian staff were told at the time that the Scott Trust, the charity that owns the newspaper and its sister paper, The Observerconsiders the current financial situation “unacceptable or sustainable,” sources said.
The publisher made a loss of £36 million in the last nine months of 2023 and forecasts a cash outflow of £39 million by the end of the financial year next month. Katharine Vinerthe editor-in-chief, is said to have told her troops to “worry, but not panic.”
Guardian Australia celebrated its tenth anniversary last year.
In conversation with Media Week 12 months ago, Australian Editor Lenore Taylor “Revenues have grown in Australia over the past year in line with audience growth – both advertising revenue and reader revenue,” he told us.
Former Acting Managing Director Mason Rook At the same time, she told us, “Our revenue is up 24% year over year and just hit the $50 million mark. As Lenore noted, this was due to strong reader revenue as well as advertising products. Reader revenue accounts for just over 50% of the business’ revenue.”
Rook left the company earlier this year and Rebecca Costello is now managing director of Guardian Australia. Rook recently moved to Nine Entertainment to head up Pedestrian.
See also: How The Guardian Australia continues to grow without disappearing behind a paywall
