Guardian newspaper to go tabloid as it seeks to slash losses

The Guardian is to go tabloid, dropping its distinctive Berliner format and shifting to the smaller print size to try and slash costs.

People familiar with plans for the shift at the newspaper have this morning confirmed a report that the Guardian is close to finalising a deal with the Daily Mirror’s parent company Trinity Mirror.

Staff at the Guardian are now preparing to reformat the newspaper’s pages for the switch, which is part of a wider cost cutting drive to try and stop operating losses which were £38 million in 2016/17.

The newspaper is one year into a three-year restructuring programme which has already seen 300 job cuts. The group is also considering moving some or all of its operation out of London, possibly to Manchester.

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The Guardian invested £80 million in three new printing plants in 2005 — two at Stratford, east London, and one in Manchester — to handle its new Berliner newspaper, a midway size between tabloid and broadsheet.

But as daily sales have halved in 10 years to 161,000, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, and with no rival newspaper printing in the Berliner format, the special presses are underused.

Simon Fox, chief executive of Trinity Mirror, declined to comment while a spokesperson for the Guardian also declined to comment.

-Financial Times