The Grauniad: riding into the sunset?

Seeking to bring a bit of excitement into my humdrum life, I turned to the Annual Report and Accounts of the Guardian Media Group.

 

Over the years I have tried to discover the attraction of the paper for the besandled, Fair Isle pullover wearing, bearded muesli-gobblers who seem to make up the bulk of its readership. I never did. I found it unreadable – prejudiced, lefty and with some really unpleasant writers, such as Toynbee and Alubhai-Brown.

 

Of course, it has always been compulsory viewing for anyone wanting a job in the public service because the Grauniad has always had a half-nelson on job adverts for civil servants and the like. The Wednesday Appointments supplement is huge. That is how the public service came to be what it is today.

 

The figures are intriguing.

 

It has just made a loss before tax of £75.6 million. Its cash and reserves have dwindled over the years from £577.9 million ten years ago to £275.8 million now, a big chunk of this being invested in the hedge funds that it has castigated over the years.

 

It has invested hugely in the on-line version but there is no paywall. It is facing trouble with the unions because its voluntary redundancy scheme tanked.

 

Its main asset is not the newspaper but Autotrader magazine that makes good profits. If GMG decided to sell, it would probably make about £500 million, enough to cover the paper’s losses for a few years yet.

 

The problem is that fewer and fewer people buy the print edition. The on-line version is the third biggest in the world (after the Daily Mail – yes, that’s right – and the NYT, but the advertising revenues are grossly insufficient to cover the print edition losses. Circulation in 10 years has dropped from 410,000 to 216,000 despite the vast number of copies bought by the BBC! (But don’t get complacent – the DT circulation dropped by half in the same period, seemingly falling off a cliff when the Barmy Barclay Brothers took over; as did the Times).

 

It’s not going to happen any time soon; GNG can continue at this loss-rate for ten years.

 

It is always a pity when a newspaper ceases publication.

 

But I remember the days when the Manchester Guardian was the most respected paper in the land. Moving to London debauched it over the years. It has become an object of ridicule and derision.