End of an era as Guardian puts digital and 'open journalism' first before the printed newspaper

Guardian News & Media, publisher of the Guardian, has revealed plans to become a "digital-first" organisation, placing open journalism on the web at the heart of its strategy ahead of declining print sales and "beyond the newspaper".

Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of GNM, and Andrew Miller, chief executive of parent company Guardian Media Group, today outlined to staff a major transformation programme in response to “inexorable trends” in media consumption.

Rusbridger told employees that GNM would “move beyond the newspaper, shifting focus, effort and investment towards digital, because that is our future”.

Miller said GNM was “embarking on a major transformation that will see us change from a print-based organisation to one that is digital-first in philosophy and practice”.

The company said the new strategy was a response to changes affecting the entire media sector, which has seen rapid growth in digital audiences but also financial challenges for newspaper publishers due to declining print circulation and advertising revenues.

It said that while print remained critical to GNM, the strategy would involve changes to its newspapers over time and investment in digital initiatives such as a new US operation based in New York and new mobile offerings.

The new strategy is aimed at further digital growth, and ensuring the Guardian’s long-term financial sustainability, the company said.

Rusbridger said: “Every newspaper is on a journey into some kind of digital future. That doesn’t mean getting out of print, but it does require a greater focus of attention, imagination and resource on the various forms that digital future is likely to take.

“The Guardian has consistently led the way on digital innovation and is currently showing year on year growth of 40 per cent. We are expanding into America and continuing to pioneer what we call open journalism – editorial content which is collaborative, linked into and networked with the rest of the web.

“We will also be changing the printed Monday to Friday newspaper to take account of changing patterns of readership and advertising. Half our readers now read the paper in the evening: they get their breaking news from our website or on mobile.

“By becoming a digital-first organisation we’re taking the next natural step, one which we believe all newspapers will eventually have to take.”

Miller said the new strategy would target growth in digital audiences, revenues and engagement, while maximising revenues in print. He said there would be a move to a direct model with greater numbers of print subscribers, which would also allow GNM to launch new cross-media content offerings.

He added that resources would be moved from print and reinvested in digital growth areas, and that there would also be investment in new brand marketing.

Miller said the strategy was designed “to place the Guardian on a sustainable financial footing”. He said: “The opportunities presented by the growth of digital media are immense. The Guardian’s journalism has never been more widely read. However, the same forces driving opportunity in digital are creating challenges for newspaper publishers across the developed world, including GNM.

“Circulation and advertising revenues in print continue to fall throughout the sector as readers and advertisers embrace new technologies and digital platforms, and this is not a trend that’s about to go into reverse.

“We are going to become a digital-first organisation, and are at the beginning of a process of transformation to achieve that. The quality of our journalism, our long-term outlook, the assets in GMG’s portfolio, our unique ownership structure, our progressive approach to digital media and our fantastic people mean we can do this from a position of strength.

“Innovation of this kind is in the best traditions of the Scott Trust and will help us to fulfil our mission of securing the independence of the Guardian in perpetuity.”

According to MediaGuardian, Rusbridger indicated that there would be a redesign of the Guardian's Monday to Friday editions later this year and the paper would focus less on breaking news and instead aim to emulate "Newsnight not News at Ten".

Unaudited results for the year ending 31 March showed that revenues at Guardian News & Media, the immediate parent of the newspapers and guardian.co.uk, fell to £198m last year compared with £221m the year before, a fall in revenues that reflected a sharp fall in classified advertising. Recruitment advertising has fallen by £41m in the past four years.

MediaGuardian added: "On an underlying basis, as measured by earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, the Guardian and Observer lost £22m, but the cash loss, a more accurate measure of financial performance, was larger at £33m. That is similar to last year's level, when the newspapers made an operating loss of £34.4m."

• It's worth having another look at Malcolm Coles' Guardian graph.
  

WikiLeaks: 'Assange treated like caged animal'

A new WikiLeaks video claims the British bail conditions of the website's founder Julian Assange are excessive and he is "being treated like a caged animal".

Assange is electronically tagged and has to sign in at a police station every day.

The film, broadcast on the telegrapgh.co.uk site, also alleges that extra surveillance cameras have been installed around the houses he is required to stay in Norfolk so the Government can spy on his movements and see who is visiting him.

Sarah Harrison, of WikiLeaks, says on the film: "I'm British and I'valways been proud of our justice system. But this is just wrong. This is a man who hasn't even been charged and he's being treated like a caged animal."

Assange has been required to stay in Norfolk, at the home of the Frontline Club's Vaughan Smith, for the past six months while he fights extradition to Sweden over allegations of sexual crimes, which he denies.

Local media still most trusted says new study

Local media continues to be the most trusted medium, according to new research on the importance of community to people in Britain commissioned by the Newspaper Society.

Forty-five per cent of people said local media contained content they trusted compared to 37 per cent who cited television, the next highest medium.

Eighty-one per cent of people agreed that the recession has made supporting the local community more important and local media plays a key role in stimulating pride in their local area.

The research, Loving Local, is published today and involved a study of nearly 5,000 adults by Crowd DNA on behalf of the NS. It found that 82 per cent of respondents were proud of their area – a rise of 11 percentage points on three years previously - and that local media fuels this sense of pride much more than any other medium.

Seventy three per cent of respondents said local media was relevant to having a sense of pride in their area – nearly four times higher than the internet (19 per cent), the next highest medium.

Local media (73 per cent) was cited as the best medium for making people feel part of their community, followed by the internet (22 per cent), TV (11 per cent), and national newspapers (five per cent).

Georgina Harvey, NS president and managing director of Trinity Mirror Regionals, said: “There is growing evidence of the importance of the need for a sense of place and belonging... life is truly local. And no-one can deliver that sense of community and belonging like the regional press.”

To see the Loving Local micro site click here.

'Gay Girl in Damascus hoax should not cloud real cases of jailed bloggers and online journalists'

The furore over the A Gay Girl in Damascus blog hoax should not distract attention from the plight of real bloggers and online journalists in the Middle East, according to the Committe to Protect Journalists' Danny O’Brien.

O’Brien, the CPJ's internet advocacy coordinator, says he was in Beirut talking to real Syrians about the detentions of online journalists, some of whom had befriended Amina (the supposed writer of A Gay Girl) online, and they were profoundly disturbed that she was a fraud.

He writes on the CPJ site: "Beyond the time-sink of watching the Net collectively pursue a story, the undermining of important ties that can help protect vulnerable writers in times of danger, and the sympathetic anger and hurt of many at being betrayed, the Amina hoax continues to be a distraction. It has drawn attention away from genuine cases of imprisoned bloggers and online journalists in the region.

"Amina's story--her original blog and her subsequent revelations--shouldn't cloud the real cases of bloggers and journalists in Syria and the wider region who face genuine danger.

"For instance, Tal al-Mallohi was sentenced in February to five years in prison for violating Syria's state security laws. The court proceedings remain secret but she was prosecuted, her supporters say, because of postings on her blog. To make matters worse, she was only 19 when she was first arrested, making her the youngest human rights case in the region. The campaign to free al-Mallohi has a website and Facebook group. The U.S. State Department has also protested the prosecution.

"Elsewhere, in the United Arab Emirates, five bloggers and commentators accused of undermining public order went on trial. As we reported at the time of their arrest, the UAE bloggers include the administrators of a banned forum. That forum, CPJ research shows, is one focused on politics, pluralism and democracy. While the UAE plans to hold the trial in secret in order to, in the words of the official state media, "ensure no pressure is exercised on the court," diplomatic pressure from the UAE's allies--encouraged by individuals raising the issue with their representatives--could make a difference.

O'Brien concludes: "Legitimate writers in the region risk their freedom and safety every day to simply comment on what they see around them. This is difficult and dangerous enough without them having to contend with the pathologies of liars inserting themselves into that discussion."

Julie Burchill: 'Why I love abuse from Indy readers'

Julie Burchill celebrates her first year as a columnist on the Independent today by telling readers how much she loves their abuse.

Burchill reveals she turned down a job travelling the world for the Sunday Times magazine to join the Indy.

She writes: "One of the most delightful aspects of my time here has been the abuse. Before I took this job I was offered the cushiest billet you've ever heard of by The Sunday Times magazine, basically flying round the world at the front of the plane hanging out with whoever I pleased and writing about it.

"The problem was me. I hummed and hahed and kept making excuses not to start my job there. I'd miss my husband. My feet would ache from the travelling (I really said that!) But I had to admit the truth: I didn't want to do a job where I wasn't going to get abused. Then The Independent found me, and the rest is hysteria.

"I can't explain why I enjoy being disliked; it might have something to do with being an adored only child and growing up with an almost sociopathic sense of self-esteem. Verbal humiliation for me is what flagellation is for judges; when you feel so impervious, what could be more exotic than, momentarily, being treated like the lowest of the low?

"It's a perk for me, like a company car. I can't drive but I know what gets my engine running. More, now, again!"

CPBF: 'Tribunals best way to reform libel laws'

The Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom is calling for Libel Tribunals to be established which would have the power to require publication of corrections and apologies as a “right of reply” as well as or instead of damages.

The call comes in a submission by the CPBF to the consultation by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Defamation Bill in which it describes the Press Complaints Commission as "a creature of the owners of the national press."

It claims: "The establishment of a process to facilitate the early resolution of defamation cases is a much-needed initiative. Although it is often said that English defamation law is faulty, most of the abuses have in fact arisen from current practice rather than the development of the common law. Costs and delays are the major problems. A process that could provide faster and cheaper redress would be highly beneficial.

"Of the suggested alternatives, a Libel Tribunal is the best option. Individuals who consider they have been maligned in the media do not want cases to drag on for years. They are generally less interested in money awarded by the courts than in the righting of a wrong and the restitution of their good names.

"The High Court is not the ideal place to settle such disputes. The alternative currently offered, as far as the press is concerned at least, is the Press Complaints Commission, but the PCC cannot offer any effective remedy.

"It is a creature of the owners of the national press whose fundamental remit is to minimise the damage caused by their excesses; its refusal to take action over the News of the World phone-hacking scandal is timely evidence of that.

"From time to time the PCC tinkers with its procedures but there is no prospect of significant reform as long as it is financed and controlled by the publishers. This rules out a self-regulatory 'informal resolution procedures' option, which would leave the courts as the alternative, so a new approach is badly needed."

The CPBF argues that the new tribunal system should be modelled on the Employment Tribunal. It claims "deadlines would be tighter, costs would be limited, and most importantly the Tribunal should have the power to order publications to print corrections or apologies, the texts to be negotiated between the parties for endorsement by the Tribunal."

It suggests the Tribunal chair would be a judge or senior lawyer, with lay representatives appointed from the publishers and civil society, including the media unions, as with Employment Tribunals.

The CPBF says a Libel Tribunal could cover all media, not just newspapers, which is the PCC’s remit. "It could offer redress to those with actions against broadcasting and the internet," the submission says.

Tindle North London staff vote for more strikes

NUJ members at North London & Herts Newspapers, owned by Sir Ray Tindle, have voted for more strike action in the dispute over low staffing and quality of editorial.

The 100 per cent support for action - which included the editor joining the ballot for the first time - was, the NUJ chapel says, the result of management's refusal to meet or even discuss the staffing at the Enfield-based papers, where two thirds of the newsdesk have left without being replaced.

The chapel claims that even before their two-week strike two months ago there were just three reporters "churning out" nine newspapers. Since then, one of the three has handed in her notice, meaning they are now faced two reporters writing nine papers. The union also claims management has cut freelance cover for photographic, production and editorial.

FoC Jonathan Lovett (top left) said: "The latest cuts and suicidal policy of non-replacement is final proof that Tindle couldn't give a damn about quality papers. The man who claims he is the saviour of local newspapers is, in our experience, the destroyer as he runs once loved, award-winning publications into the ground - an insult to our readers. The battle for the soul of the local press is raging up and down the country and now is the time for chapels, journalists and concerned readers to stand up and be counted before it is too late and fantastic local papers that once made a difference in their communities are consigned to the scrap heap."

Tindle Newspapers have condemned the strike action taken by the NUJ members and has claimed it would be "irresponsible" for the North London company to take on new people or increase pay because of the centre's rising losses.

Tindle Newspapers says it is the only newspaper group to have avoided redundancies among journalists in the recession to date.

North London & Herts Newspapers comprises: The Enfield Advertiser, The Edmonton Advertiser & Herald, The Winchmore Hill Advertiser & Herald, The Haringey Advertiser, The Enfield Gazette, The Barnet & Potters Bar Press, The East Barnet Press & Advertiser, The Edgware & Mill Hill Press, The Hendon & Finchley Press.

• The NUJ has chosen Enfield as the launch pad for a national campaign to save local newspapers. A public forum will take place at 6.30pm on Monday, July 4 at the Dugdale Centre, Thomas Hardy House, London Road, Enfield Town, EN2 6DS. A range of speakers including MPs and the new general secretary of the NUJ, Michelle Stanistreet.
• NUJ members at Newsquest South London began a two-day strike today over job cuts.
• Pic: Jon Slattery