There appears to be a growing and persistent rumour that the Guardian Media Group are about to close down The Observer. This comes on the back of a collapse in advertising revenue that has prompted News International to announce that they’re going to turn their free news sites in to premium services.
The latter is no great loss, though it’s irksome to not be able to mock video clips of Bill O’Reilly and that twat wagon Hannity any more. But, the loss of The Observer is quite an upsetting prospect.
Off the top of my head, I seem to remember that The Guardian is protected through a Trust, but not the Sunday version, so that’s probably why it’s become the focus of cost-cutting rumours. And because the sole purpose of the Scott Trust is to safeguard the Guardian “in perpetuity” then it seems that anything else will be fair game for the chop.
For a while, both papers had been funded by the Trust’s stake in Autotrader, but like dumbasses they sold that for a quick buck.
Whatever you might think of The Guardian and its sister paper (I much prefer the Observer), the prospective closure of Britain’s oldest Sunday newspaper is quite a lamentable turn of events.
