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McCall offers no comfort to Observer journos
Guardian Media Group ‘examining every aspect of strategy and titles’ as world’s oldest Sunday faces the chop
Carolyn McCall, chief executive of the company that owns the Guardian and the Observer, was at the centre of a guessing game today after sending out an email on Monday designed to steady the nerves of journalists on the two titles. For while she may have given the Guardian hacks some peace of mind, her failure to mention their sister paper has fuelled speculation that the Guardian Media Group might close the 218-year-old title.
The notion that the world's oldest Sunday paper might be cut loose had been floated in a gleeful article in the Sunday Times, the Observer's longtime rival. The article claimed that with losses running at up to £20m a year, and circulation down from 1.3m in its heyday to 400,000, the paper was doomed.
The Sunday Times report also said members of the Scott Trust, the charitable foundation that owns GMG, had been shown 'dummy' copies of an Observer-branded news magazine that would replace the paper and be published on a Thursday.
McCall's email said that all options were under consideration as GMG seeks to cut losses of nearly £90m last year. She said the group was grappling not only with the recession but with "structural change" as advertising migrates to the internet. Forecasting that advertising would not bounce back, she said that GMG would inevitably end up "a smaller organisation".
She said GMG was "examining every aspect of strategy and titles" and that "a wide variety of different options, approaches and scenarios is being developed and will be considered".
The problem for the Observer is that the whole purpose of the Scott Trust is to safeguard the future of the Guardian "in perpetuity". But no such guarantee is attached to the Observer, which GMG bought relatively recently, in 1993. ·
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Alan Scott, whatever gave the impression I'm American???? I think McGrane is however, since they seem to be alone in hating the BBC, which they usually place alongside the NHS as a communist conspiracy, despite the fact that the BBC is renowned and respected the world over for its impartiality and accuracy. The only people allowed to criticise the BBC are we who pay for it. Americans can stick with Fox and guess whether it's lying to an agenda or not [usually it is].
Mr McGrane
Whether Mr Simmons is a "yank" or not, you, Mr McGrane, are an obnoxious blogger.
You might tell us how you arrive at your unusual estimation of the standing of the BBC and The Observer.
May you enjoy your splenetics, but leave the rest of us out of it.
Kevin, since the BBC is held in high esteem by virtually all Brits, and the Observer has a long history as a fearless exposure of cant, hypocrisy and state crime, I can only assume you're one of the rabid right yanks who come here with their idiot postings. You really think a blog called buythetruth has the 'truth' do you? Utterly pathetic.
I'll certainly shed no tears to see the Observer disappear. Pity it can't take the whole GMG down with it. In my opinion, the GMG (or, ultimately, the Scott Trust Limited) and their so-called liberal propaganda have done more damage to this country than almost anything I can think of apart from the BBC. Want an example of propaganda? Take a look at the Observer article of July 26, "Revealed: the secret evidence of global warming Bush tried to hide"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/26/climate-change-obama-a...
Then see what nonsense this is by consulting http://buythetruth.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/arctic-sea-ice-scam/
That's a bad zit on her cheek, she should get it seen to.