Britain's Guardian Media Group is considering options for its Guardiannewspaper, Observer Sundaynewspaper and online publications as it faces the fact it will emerge from the recession as a smaller organisation.
In a letter to staff written in response to media reports that the company was mulling closing the Observer, the group's chief executive said Guardian News Media (GNM) was conducting a strategic review and it was too early to say what the outcome would be.
“When the economy recovers, so – to a degree – will our advertising revenues. However, due to structural change, these revenues will not be at the levels they were in the past,” Carolyn McCall wrote in an e-mail.
"This inevitably means we will be a smaller organisation," she added. "A wide variety of different options, approaches and scenarios is being developed." She said every aspect of GNM's publishing strategy and titles would be examined, including the Observer, the world's oldest Sunday newspaper, which was first published in 1791.
Guardian Media Group, which is owned by the Scott Trust, last Friday reported a pretax loss of £89.8 million (€105.9 million) for 2008/09, compared with a profit of £306.4 million the previous year. The group’s turnover increased slightly to £637.9 million, including its share of two joint venture companies.
The Scott Trust was created in 1936 to safeguard the Guardian'sjournalistic freedom and liberal values. Its stated core purpose is "to preserve the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity". It does not mention the Observer.
Rival Sunday newspaper the Sunday Times, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, plans to launch its own dedicated website separate from timesonline.co.uk, a spokeswoman confirmed.
The Observer's circulation was 410,000 in June, slightly up from May, according to Britain's Audit Bureau of Circulation. The Sunday Times, Britain's best-selling quality Sunday, also slightly increased its circulation to 1.2 million.