What will happen next?
The Guardian has warned its staff that they should expect to see heavy losses this year. The newspaper is expected to get through another £90m of cash this year.
In the current financial year, it has seen a negative cash flow of £60m, the company is currently on track to get through another £30m in the current financial year.
The Guardian is looking to cut its costs by getting rid of staff, reducing the size of its office as well as scaling back its overseas ambitions.
During a meeting staff were told that the management is confident they can deliver a turnaround in the next two years. The paper is currently led by editor Katharine Viner and chief executive David Pemsel.
The Guardians losses are funded by the Scott Trust, this is a charitable trust set up to secure The Guardians future. A huge £95m of it was used last year leaving it with a reserve of £743m.
Executives are looking at reducing the size of the paper and outsourcing printing to Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper publisher, News UK.
This move would mean The Guardian would shut down its own “Berliner” printing presses which cost the company £80m back in 2005.
At the moment, Viner and Pemsel have been asking for donations on the online site, it’s still giving out free access to all articles, in the future access to some material may need to be paid for.
The company are currently recruiting a head of subscriptions with the instruction of “what are realistic targets for [subscriber] acquisition, retention and overall revenues; how should products be priced”.
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