Tuesday 15 September 2009

Staff told GN&M is losing £100,000 a day

Staff at Guardian News & Media, publisher of the Guardian and Observer newspapers and the guardian.co.uk website, have been told more cost savings are to come.
MediaGuardian reports that GNM managing director Tim Brooks, has told staff in a memo that the current rate of losses at the company, which he said were £100,000 a day, was "unsustainable".
He said that GNM needed to "operate at a sustainable level, without compromising our core purpose". He told staff that the company was doing well in a difficult environment but that its revenues were under pressure.
Brooks is quoted by MediaGuardian as warning: "We are looking at everything – literally everything – that we do, to see how we can economise, and we will do whatever we can to keep the impact on staff to a minimum. However, because the biggest portion of our costs is people's salaries, we have to review staffing levels."
He added: "This is an unsettling and testing time for everybody, but the fact remains that we are – contrary to some reports by our competitors – very well placed compared to many of our peers."
GMG has said it was "not accurate" to say it has a "plan to shut the Observer" as part of its operational review but there is speculation that the world's oldest Sunday paper will be more closely integrated with the Guardian leading to job losses.

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