Is The Observer Getting Canned?
The Observer, the Sunday broadsheet bought by the Guardian back in 1993, could get sent to the big liberal breakfast table in the sky in order to save its parent publication.
Some Nancy-Drew-like staff at the Observer found an important clue to the future of the paper last week, namely a mock-up of a weekly news magazine with the Observer’s branding all over it. The magazine was apparently shown to the Scott Trust, Guardian Media Group’s owners, a month ago as a potential alternative to the newspaper – the Trust told them to go away and think of something else, before they make a decision at a meeting next month.
According to an Observer journo the Sunday Times spoke to, “it is 50:50 whether we are headed for the magazine, or for job losses and cost-cuts but keeping the paper”. And from one that spoke to the FT: “They came up with a similar plan to close us down five years ago, and it was fought off. This time it seems to be couched in terms of saving The Guardian, so you have to think it is much more serious”. Guardian News and Media lost £36.8m this year, while its parent company, Guardian Media Group, lost £89.8m. The Guardian is the group’s most venerable and prestigious asset, so to lop off the Observer to ensure its future would be bold but seen as worthwhile if it eases the pressure.
The Observer is the oldest Sunday paper in the world – it started in 1791, covered Marie Antoinette’s beheading, had George Orwell on its staff, and throughout the 80’s was owned by one of Mohamed Al-Fayed’s various nemeses, Roland Rowland. After Fayed was criticised by the Department of Trade and Industry, the Rowland went into full-on demented Kane mode, publishing a midweek edition just to report on the news; Fayed had previously beat him to ownership of Harrods.
In 1993 the paper was going up for sale, and was initially courted by the Independent to merge with its Sunday edition, but the Guardian’s liberal stance and provision for the Observer’s relative independence meant that they had the favourable deal. Since then they’ve built up ranks of quality writers (Rachel Cooke, Jay Rayner) and some dire ones (Euan Ferguson, Miranda Sawyer); created a good music mag, a very good food mag, an excellent sport mag and perhaps the only women’s mag in the country that doesn’t make women want to kill themselves when they look in the mirror; and managed to buck the trend for declining circulations for a while last year, only to see them fall once more this year.
Still, with the Sindy looking weaker and weaker, even if a sale of the Independent goes through a new owner might ditch the Sunday edition, leaving the Observer with a pool of liberal-minded readers to mop up. The Observer might have its flaws – nauseating columnists, slightly cheap-feeling magazine, often ugly design – but it’s a darn sight better than the suffocating blandness of its peers, and a reduction to a news magazine wouldn’t play to its strengths. Let’s hope it slims down in all the right places.
Posted by Ben Beaumont-Thomas in Creative Economy | August 3, 2009 11:19AM |