[The News (Pak) Top Stories] The Guardian Media Group (GMG) is considering closing The Observer, the worldÃs oldest Sunday newspaper, as part of a cost-cutting drive triggered by a drastic plunge in the group's finances. | Right next to watching the NYT close, this would be a good one ... |
After opposition from some trust members, thought to include Larry Elliott, who represents journalists of both papers on the board, GMG executives agreed to put the scheme on hold while an alternative was worked out.
This would keep The Observer as a Sunday newspaper but heavily slimmed down. Insiders now expect a decision at a trust meeting next month. The GMG declined to comment, as did members of the Scott Trust approached by The Sunday Times, including Dame Liz Forgan, its chairwoman.
Sources at The Observer said that rumours about the newspaper's future had circulated for several weeks, as had stories of disagreements at the Scott Trust over the plan. "At the moment, I would say it is 50:50 whether we are headed for the magazine, or for job losses and cost-cuts but keeping the paper," said one senior source.
Closure of The Observer would bring an end to a 218-year publishing era. It was set up in 1791 by WS Bourne, and its editors have included David Astor and Donald Trelford. It reached a peak circulation of 1.3m copies in 1979, but now hovers at about 400,000 a week.
Although GMG does not disclose the results of individual newspapers, The Observer is thought to have lost £10m-£20m a year in recent years, and not to have made a profit since it was bought by The Guardian in 1993.
| Reds and profits don't mix. Who would have thought ... |