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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Jonathan Prynn

‘Structural challenges’ put Guardian in red with £47.5 million loss

The publisher of The Guardian newspaper has fallen deep into the red amid rising costs and “sustained structural challenges” from declining print sales and weak advertising.

Guardian Media Group, which also publishes The Observer, said it made a £47.5 million pre-tax loss in the 12 months to April 2, compared with a £142.7 million profit in the previous year.

However, latest accounts filed at Companies House revealed that the company also received a £31.8 million tax credit reducing the post tax deficit to £156.7 million compared with a surplus of £120.3 million previously.

The group also revealed that its editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, was paid a base salary of £509,850, increasing to £527,695 following a 3.5 per cent pay rise on April 1.

The company, which is owned by the Scott Trust, said that overall turnover grew 3.4 per cent to £264.4 million during the year, boosted by digital reader revenues. These now account for 31 per cent of all revenues.

However, it warned that “the economic environment continues to be challenging, particularly in the UK, where our advertising and print revenue streams faced sustained structural challenges”.

Costs rose sharply with staff costs up from £131 million to £152.6 million and “other expenses” rising from £91.1 million to £107.1 million. Guardian Media Group said it was targeting further growth in Europe, with the company hiring journalists to serve readers on the continent.

The company was hit by a “highly sophisticated” cyber attack in December which caused “significant disruption across the business for several months”.

Chief executive Anna Bateson said: “In a difficult economic climate we have continued to invest in quality journalism and in our digital business capabilities to advance this strategy which has brought revenue growth and a continued rise in digital reader revenues from across the globe... We will continue to invest and build a platform for long-term success.”

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