News / Economy

Guardian daily to cut costs by 20%

Monday, 25 January 2016 2:33 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 25 January 2016 7:24 PM ]

Britain's Guardian newspaper has announced that it plans to cut costs by at least 20 percent.

Guardian Media Group (GMG), the publisher of Britain's left-leaning Guardian newspaper, announced on Monday that it needs to cut about 50 million pounds ($71 million) from its 268 million pound annual cost base.

This, it said, is meant to protect the future of the paper which is known for helping to break the Edward Snowden revelation of widespread surveillance by the US National Security Agency.

It is still not clear if Guardian’s planned cost cuts will translate into any job reductions.

"Against the backdrop of a volatile market, we are taking immediate action to boost revenues and reduce our cost-base in order to safeguard Guardian journalism in perpetuity," said GMG Chief Executive David Pemsel, as reported by Reuters.

The Guardian has been involved in some of the biggest stories in recent years, from Snowden to the phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch's tabloid, to Wikileaks.

It has built one of the most popular websites in the world which is read by more than 130 million monthly unique browsers that is free to access and supported by advertising.

However, the newspaper appears to have failed to make up for falling print sales. This is mainly because big brands pay less to advertise online than they would in a newspaper, and pay even less again to advertise on mobile sites, where many people now access news, Reuters added.

Costs have risen 23 percent in five years at GMG, which employs 1,960 staff, while revenues have gone up by 10 percent, it added.

GMG has announced that it plans to generate greater revenue with a relaunched membership scheme which gives access to events and workshops, align its editorial and commercial operations and make greater use of data to spot market trends.

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