The Guardian to 'go tabloid' in cost-cutting measure

It is a report that may horrify its readers, but the left-leaning "quality" newspaper The Guardian is to "go tabloid", says the Daily Telegraph.

However, the news refers to the paper's size and not its editorial style.

According to the Telegraph, the Guardian is abandoning its Berliner format, "which is taller than tabloid and narrower than a broadsheet", and will ditch its presses in favour of printing at Trinity Mirror, which produces the tabloid Daily Mirror and its sister paper the Sunday Mirror.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The deal, which is reportedly close to being finalised, will save "millions of pounds a year".

The former broadsheet switched to the Berliner size in 2005, paying a total of £80m for new presses in London and Manchester, says the Financial Times.

However, no other paper has moved to the format and a fall in the Guardian's average circulation, from 314,000 in 2005 to 154,000 in April, means the presses have been "underused".

"Abandoning print entirely is not viewed as a realistic option yet," says the Telegraph, as digital revenues at the newspaper have "stalled".

The Guardian made total revenues of £209.5m in the year to April 2016, of which 60 per cent came from print sales and advertising. It has been making losses for years and was in the red to the tune of £37.8m for the year to April 2007.

Changing over could see it hit with a "hefty one-off charge", as it owes Lloyds Bank £33.7m on hire-purchase agreements for the Berliner presses, adds the Telegraph.

The FT reports that in addition to the print change, the Guardian is "one year into a three-year restructuring programme which has already seen 300 job cuts".

Bosses could also move the paper's head office out of London, most likely to Manchester, where the paper originated.