“How has the Guardian adapted itself to the 21st century landscape of digital journalism and what does this mean for the organisation’s future?”
Abstract
The following report will be detailing the Guardian’s transition
into the digital era of journalism and just what the transition means for the
future of the organisation. The Guardian are renowned for being digital
pioneers of the industry and have recently adopted a new strategy in order be
profitable in the ever-changing field that is modern journalism. Nowadays the
paper tends to focus on analysis and comment on stories rather than scooping
the breaking news, more ‘Newsnight’ than ‘News at Ten’, but why is this, and
what forced the organisation to make operating changes?
Throughout the report I will be drawing from a variety of online
sources, as well as my own personal experiences working for the paper as part
of my placement. My time there was divided across two separate departments,
with 72 hours spent working on the Multimedia department and 35 hours on the
sports desk.
Methodology
To gather the information for the report, I spoke to a number of
staff during my placement and used several online sources. During my time on
the Multimedia department I was working alongside audio producer, Jason Phipps,
and assisting him with the production of his shows, the Tech and Science Weekly
podcasts, as well as numerous other tasks. My week on the sports department
consisted of an assortment of activities, including writing articles for the
website, and I will be touching on my experiences in further detail throughout
the report, linking them to the digital transformation that the Guardian has
undertook.
‘Digital First
Strategy’
In June 2011, Guardian Media Group (GMG) announced a
five-year transformation programme for the Guardian and Observer as part of its
“digital-first” strategy. With times changing and newspapers dying a slow
death, chief executive of GMG, Andrew Miller claimed that the strategy would
push the organisation “beyond the newspaper, shifting focus, effort and
investment towards digital, because that is out future,” and that the
transformation will see the Guardian “change from a print-based organisation to
one that is digital-first in philosophy and practice.” (The Guardian. (2011). Guardian
News & Media to be a digital-first organisation. Available: http://tinyurl.com/698qta6 Last accessed 29th April 2013). As part of the plan, GNM reallocated
a £25million investment that was earmarked for print, to the digital side of
the organisation, and the objective is to at least double digital revenue by
2016.
In doing so, the Guardian became the first major UK
newspaper to adopt such a stance, but the figures suggest that there was little
other option for the organisation. Speaking at the announcement, Miller claimed
that the newspaper and its sister publication, the Observer, had lost
£33million in cash terms over the last year and warned that unless business
operations were dramatically altered, GMG could be completely out of funds
within three to five years. The organisation tried to gain at least 100
voluntary redundancies, such is their financial strife, but only 30 or so
volunteered. The latest figures from the financial year ending April 2012
really emphasise the importance of making a change, and the reasoning behind
it. In April 2012 operating losses were recorded at £44.2million and the
newspaper’s circulation fell 11% to just over 204,000, with income from print
advertising down 4%. (Sabbagh,
D. (2012). Guardian and Observer
report losses of £44.2m.Available: http://tinyurl.com/cxeqs5c Last accessed 1st May 2013).
If an organisation’s circulation
falls below 200,000 it becomes a real struggle to gain any substantial income
from advertisers, who feel that their investment isn’t financially viable. In
January 2012 the Guardian newspaper shrank, with the Film & Music supplement
being axed and the sport supplement reduced to a two days a week publication.
Its G2 supplement was also reduced in an attempt to halt losses. It wasn’t all
doom and gloom however, with the digital side of the organisation announcing
promising figures; figures that justify employing a digital first strategy. In
the same period, digital revenues rose 16.3% to £45.7million (around a quarter
of the organisation’s whole revenue) and of that total, digital advertising was
up by 26% to £14.7million. (Sabbagh,
D. (2012). Guardian and Observer
report losses of £44.2m.Available: http://tinyurl.com/cxeqs5c Last accessed 1st May 2013). GNM obviously saw this as a great
opportunity to capitalise on their digital reach and at the same time
compromise the financial losses on the print side.
'In-house' changes
For the first time in their history, the Guardian
announced in October 2012 that they would be employing a “Director of Digital
Strategy”. The new role was handed to Wolfgang Blau, chief editor of ‘Zeit
Online’ and the German editor of the year in 2011, and he will be charged with:
“helping (editorial and commercial teams) to grow global audiences and revenues
by developing new digital platforms that deepen reader engagement and provide
new opportunities to commercial partners.” (Andrews, R. (2012). Guardian hires first digital strategy
director to grow online business. Available: http://tinyurl.com/9qkp7dh Last accessed 2nd May 2013).
Blau’s starting date was 1st April 2013 so I missed
the opportunity of meeting the man and seeing how he imposed himself on the
multimedia department in person. I did however hear his name mentioned often on
the department and Jason Phipps, the audio producer that I was working alongside,
was excited at the dawn of a new era.
Social Media and
Apps
In September 2011 the Guardian built on their digital
first strategy as they unveiled a Facebook application. The app allows users of
the social networking site the choice to read and share Guardian and Observer
content within the Facebook environment, bringing the paper’s work to a larger,
engaged audience. It also allows a more ‘social reading’ experience where users
can see what their friends have been viewing from the Guardian, and what articles
are proving the most popular. Guardian News and Media’s Head of Digital
Engagement, Meg Pickard, said of the app; “We know that a lot of Guardian
readers are keen Facebook users, and vice versa, so we wanted to create a news
experience that was native to the Facebook environment. The app draws on the
social functionality they are already familiar with to highlight and discover
quality Guardian content, and make users’ reading experience more personal and
relevant.” (Guardian, The. (2011). Guardian
announces new app on Facebook to make news more social. Available: http://tinyurl.com/c9gnk5a Last accessed 2nd May 2013).
Within two months of its release
the app had had over 4million users, with a million extra page impressions
being recorded per day. Chief executive
of GMG, Andrew Miller, was delighted with the instant impression the app made,
and the new audiences that were able to be engaged; “As well as increasing
traffic, the app is making our journalism visible to new audiences. Over half
of the app’s users are 24 and under, traditionally a very hard demographic to
reach for news organisations. The Facebook app is one of a number of successful
launches by the Guardian in recent months as our digital-first strategy gains
momentum.” (Arthur, C. (2011). Guardian's
Facebook app installed by more than 4 million users. Available: http://tinyurl.com/8yt4ef9 Last accessed 3rd May 2013). Interestingly enough, the most viewed
and shared articles via the app were old stories, some from as early as the
late 1990’s. In a sense this relates back to the Guardian focusing on analysis
and comment rather than pure news stories; the style retains interest and
relevance for a longer period of time as it more personal and opinionated.
Reaching a peak of 6million active monthly users in
April 2012, the app was a definitive success and received an upgrade in
December of the same year. Whereas before users had to read articles within the
Facebook environment, the app now takes audiences straight to the story on the
Guardian’s website. The Guardian saw the reach that Facebook has and felt that
they were missing an opportunity by allowing users to bypass their own site
whilst still enjoying their content. It was a shrewd move by the organisation
as if only half of the app’s 12 million users do visit Guardian.co.uk, the
site’s traffic will receive an exponential boost. This will obviously lead to
an increase in online advertising revenue and help reduce the organisation’s
financial losses. Anthony Sullivan summarises the move on the Guardian’s
website; “Implementing the reading experience within Facebook was also a
conscious decision to give us space to experiment away from the main Guardian
website. The app has given us access to a hard to reach audience and has helped
us learn much more about our new and existing readership, which as a digital
organisation, is crucial.” (Sullivan, A. (2012). Guardian and Facebook - a more social experience.
Available: http://tinyurl.com/a7hwz63 Last accessed 4th May
2013).
As well as Facebook, Twitter is an integral part of the Guardian’s
digital strategy. The Guardian’s main twitter feed has just under 1million
followers, and overall the organisation has over 30 different Twitter accounts
for different departments. Similar to the way in which the Facebook app
operates, links that are posted on the Twitter feed direct users straight to
the Guardian website. This increases traffic to the site and users can
‘re-tweet’ stories they have read which will appear on their friend’s timeline
even if they aren’t followers of the Guardian themselves. A new audience can be reached as a result.
The Guardian also made alterations to the way in which readers
can interact with stories in December 2012. They announced features such as
interactive polls for sports stories and an alteration of the commenting method
for articles. This interactivity creates a digital community which in turn
means users will come back to see if their comment has received any responses. (Sullivan, A. (2012). Guardian and Facebook - a more social experience. Available: http://tinyurl.com/a7hwz63 Last accessed 4th May 2013).
Whilst working on the sports department I was asked to write a
couple of cricket features for the website and saw first hand just how the
social media side of things intertwines with the work that sports journalists
produce. My articles were published on the website and now as standard with the
Guardian there are options for the article to be shared via social media
websites. The feature allowed my articles to reach audiences that it may not
have before and it was great to actually be a part of the digital-first
strategy. When the articles were put up on the website they were also posted on
the Guardian Sport Twitter and Facebook feed which directed more traffic
towards the site.
With the emergence of tablets and smartphones, the
Guardian have invested heavily in optimising their output for such devices.
There is a Guardian Kindle edition, a specific version on the website formatted
for mobiles, and an app for iPhones, iPads, Windows phones and Blackberry
devices. Speaking at the Guardian Mobile Business Summit 2012, Anthony
Sullivan, group product manager for Guardian Core products claimed, “Mobile is
having a huge transformational effect not only on how our audience seek out
content, but how they’re discovering it. The way we’ve organised ourselves
reflects that we put mobile really at the centre of our planning.” (Dredge,
S. (2012). Guardian mobile visits
overtake desktop at some times of day. Available: http://tinyurl.com/c4pfvrd Last accessed 5th May
2013). The statistics confirm that the area is one of real growth for
the organisation.
At the start of 2011, mobile devices accounted for just 10%
of visitors to the Guardian’s core products, but by December 2012, the figure
is closer to 30%. Once you add tablets to the mix, the figure is around 35%. (Dredge,
S. (2012). Guardian mobile visits
overtake desktop at some times of day. Available: http://tinyurl.com/c4pfvrd Last accessed 5th May
2013). The reach of mobile devices is so much in fact that research has
revealed at certain points of the day, there are more people accessing the
Guardian from mobile devices than desktop, and the tipping point is only a
couple of years away. “If you look between 6am and 7am in the morning, we’re
now getting more visits coming from mobile devices. On Saturdays at 3pm when
the Premier League is in full flight, we also have more mobile devices than
desktop.” (Dredge, S. (2012). Guardian mobile visits overtake desktop at
some times of day. Available: http://tinyurl.com/c4pfvrd Last accessed 5th May
2013).
Audio
The audio side of the Guardian is a crucial component
of its digital presence. The website has over fifteen podcasts, including
Football Weekly, Science Weekly and Tech Weekly. The most recently released
statistics surrounding podcast downloads date back to 2008, where 1.5million
podcasts were downloaded in January alone, with Football Weekly, the most
popular podcast, attracting an impressive 80-100,000 downloads a week. (Oliver,
L. (2008). BBC podcasts
criticised by Guardian audio head for 'unimpressive' audiences. Available:
http://tinyurl.com/cwkwehw Last accessed 5th May
2013).
The figures are sure to have increased considerably by now. To
capitalise on such an impressive reach, the Guardian announced in 2009 that
brief adverts would now feature on their podcasts, a lucrative source of
income. During the second half of my time on the department, once I had learnt
the ins and outs of the production process, I was asked to mix sections of the
final podcast together. As part of the mixing criteria I was instructed to
include two advertisements, one at the beginning of the podcast and one halfway
through. This gave me the opportunity of seeing the commercial side of audio
production first hand.
Whilst working on the multimedia department I was assisting with
the production of the Science and Tech Weekly podcasts and got to watch the
Football edition recorded several times. During my time there one of my tasks
was to archive all of the old podcast episodes in preparation for the switch to
SoundCloud. From March 2013, the Guardian’s output will appear on SoundCloud as
well as iTunes and Guardian.co.uk. This move allows the organisation to reach
an even larger audience and adheres to the digital-first strategy. What struck me was the sheer scale of the
multimedia department, and I got to see in person just how crucial the
department is to the Guardian. There were eight studios, in excess of 100 iMac
Pros and over 50 staff all working on a variety of multimedia products. Video was also created in the same department
but I will mention more on that later. The sheer amount of iMac pros, which
cost around £2,500 each, was evidence of the significant investment that had been
put aside for multimedia. When speaking to Tim Nice, the producer of the Books
podcast, he told me at how ten years ago there was hardly any of these
facilities available for staff, as it simply wasn’t necessary.
What I learnt more than anything was how involved the production
process is and just how much work goes into it. The Tech Weekly podcast for
example required several days of researching content before the technical
process even began. The podcast employed four different people; Jason was the
producer, Jemima Kiss the presenter, with Charles Arthur and Aleks Krotski the tech
correspondents. With an average of four employees per show, sometimes more as
in the case with Football Weekly, and there being over fifteen different types
of podcast, you can see the importance that the Guardian place on their audio
output. When using the studio to record news bulletins or interviews we had to
book a specific slot and ensure we were punctual and worked fast so that other
podcasts and audio features weren’t disrupted. This is due to the sheer wealth
of audio output that the Guardian export and the studios are always in high
demand as a result.
One thing I was impressed with was the size and quality of the
studios. Having previously had experience at TalkSport and other local media
organisations, I had noticed that there were often one or two main studios and
then several scaled down smaller versions. This however was not the case at the
Guardian, and although there was one larger studio that Football Weekly was
recorded in, the other studios were all identical with full mixing desks, four
microphones and ISDN lines. Having only moved to their Kings Cross headquarters
in 2008, it was evident from viewing the facilities that the Guardian had
invested significantly and specifically wanted the multimedia department to be
well equipped for the digital era.
The editing software that is used for audio at the Guardian is
Cubase and it cost tens of thousands of pounds to get the licensing for every
individual iMac Pro. The Guardian Audio edition had just been released during
my time there, and as Jason produced the show, I also assisted in its production.
The Audio Edition is an audio summary of the biggest news stories of the week
and was designed to reach new audiences that can now absorb Guardian products
whilst driving, on the move or if they are blind. This is a new addition to the
digital first strategy and it was great to be a part of its fledgling period. I
was editing down segments for the show for Jason and then I was taken through
the process of how audio is uploaded to iTunes and Guardian.co.uk. The export
process was interesting as it gave me an insider’s look at how the Guardian
ensure their products are reaching the right people. I learnt how to add ID3
tags and keywords, which allow web users to access the shows with ease. One
thing that surprised me was that the upload had to be sent to a technical
department downstairs before appearing on the website itself. This shows the
scale of digital operations at the Guardian, as there is a department for
producing the multimedia and then a department specifically for checking over
the tags, content and format before it reached the website. This care and
attention that the organisation has for its digital products shows just how
highly they value their multimedia output and the audience receiving it.
Every Wednesday on placement, I had to write the Tech News
bulletins for the podcast and this taught me a lot about content
‘re-purposement’. Jason advised me to scan the Tech news section of the
Guardian website and then re-write the top stories for audio format. It taught
me a lot about the differences between writing for the eye and the ear and I
found it interesting that the organisation use their online content for audio
purposes. This shows just how in tune the Guardian are with their digital
audience and they know that their demographic are media-savvy and will be able
to pinpoint the differences between style across differing formats.
In my last week at the department, Jason set me a couple of
individual mixing projects that he had been sent from the picture desk
downstairs. As well as podcasts and interviews, a major part of the Guardian’s
audio output are its audio slideshows. I was asked to compile a backing track
for two slideshows; one regarding the opening of a Pangolin Sculpture
Exhibition in London, and the other marking the tenth anniversary of the
invasion of Iraq. It was a very enjoyable task and I was delighted when my
tracks were used for the final pieces on the website. By witnessing how other
departments all come to the multimedia department made me realise further just
how crucial digital media is to the Guardian. Although working in the
multimedia department, I was collaborating with staff from the politics and
culture desks, which showed me just how important video and audio are to the
organisation. A story about politics, sport, travel or any other subject, is
almost guaranteed to involve some form of multimedia, whether it be a video
report to accompany the copy, or an audio slideshow like the ones I worked on.
Throughout the entirety of my time on the department I noticed how the
multimedia staff are almost skilled hands for hire with journalists from all
over the building coming in to ask for a video or audio segment. The multimedia
department is arguably the cornerstone of operations at the Guardian and is a
diverse, fast-paced environment.
Video
Video is just as crucial as audio to the Guardian’s digital
output. Nearly every single story on the website will have an accompanying
video report and the video section of the website has interviews, reports and
analysis ranging across an array of different topics.
Although I was working on the audio side of the multimedia
department, I managed to talk to several video producers and observe them at
work. Every day there was at least twenty staff working at one time on a
variety of different videos, and it was interesting to see how some staff
switch between audio and video projects. This showed me the versatility that
journalists need to succeed at a top institution such as the Guardian, and the
skills that are required to have a successful career within modern journalism.
Whilst there I managed to sit in on the recording of the
‘European Paper Round-up’, a weekly sports feature in which James Richardson
runs through the continental headlines from the past seven days. Having worked
primarily in an audio capacity, it was great to see how video is produced and I
learnt a lot about the production process. I got to see how the autocue is
constructed and was able to assist with writing the script. In line with their
digital strategy, the Guardian also launched a video version of their Football
Weekly podcast which I was able to see put together.
On the sports desk I was required to research videos for another
regular feature; “Classic YouTube”. I had to scour the web for interesting and
relevant videos and the feature is one of the most popular on the sports site.
Ad Campaign: “The
Whole Picture”
In order to get their digital-first strategy into the public
eye, the Guardian launched a major brand campaign to showcase its
multi-platform credentials in February 2012. The tagline of the campaign was
‘The Guardian: The Whole Picture”, an intelligent slogan which encapsulates the
organisation’s ethos and diverse range of multimedia.
The campaign was devised by award-winning creative agency Bartle
Bogle Hegarty and featured a series of TV, cinema, outdoor, press and digital
advertisements. In line with their digital presence the campaign also included
a 24-hour takeover of the UK YouTube homepage.
GMO CEO, Alan Miller, said of the campaign: “We’re
giving voice to our brand at a time when the Guardian is evolving from a
newspaper into a truly multi-platform, global and digital-first organisation.
We are becoming even more focused on our consumers and customers, and beginning
to shape our activity around a more sophisticated understanding of our
audience. The aim is to reach progressive audiences and show them why they
should spend time with us.” (Guardian, The.
(2012). Guardian launches major
new brand campaign. Available: http://tinyurl.com/amrf3ww Last accessed 29th February 2012).
The Future
The objective for the Guardian’s digital first strategy is to
double digital revenue by 2016, and although change is occurring only time will
tell whether the objective is achievable. Despite now being the third most
popular newspaper website in the world, after the Daily Mail and New York
Times, the Guardian’s digital advertising is still not bringing in nearly
enough revenue to offset losses on the print side. However, there are still
three years left of the programme and with Wolfgang Blau now director of
digital strategy there still remains cause for optimism.
There are rumours that the Guardian could be forced
to become a completely digital organisation within the next couple of years. When
quizzed on the possibility of this happening, CEO of GNM, Andrew Miller was not
wholly opposed to the idea; “We are now very clear that we have a digital first
strategy. We are much more concerned about telling stories than we are about
the platform. From a commercial point of view I absolutely can see a time when
there will not be as many newspapers on the high street.” (Rushton, K. (2012). Guardian pins digital future on citizen
journalism. Available: http://tinyurl.com/6nk56ny Last accessed 1st May
2013).
In my opinion I see switching to a digital only
organisation as the only real solution to transforming the Guardian into a
sustainable business model. Although it clashes with the Guardian’s liberal
ideology, I can see the website installing a pay wall or tariff type system, as
at the end of the day it is a business. Andrew Miller has also hinted at this
being a solution if revenue does not pick up; “We will continue to monitor pay
walls and we aren’t anti pay wall, that’s for sure.” The organisation has already
effectively starting charging for content with the launch of its iPhone and
iPad apps, and I see this as the future of journalism. It would be a gamble but
the Times’ pay wall has proved a major success and they still remain the most
viewed newspaper website on the Internet.
One promising thing for the organisation though is
their grasp on the mobile market. As aforementioned, mobile users of the
Guardian are close to overtaking desktop users, so when this tipping point
occurs the organisation are in a great position to make profits.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the digital first strategy that the Guardian has
enforced is without doubt gradually increasing the organisation’s online
readership. However, worrying newspaper circulation statistics mean that a
digital first strategy might not be enough alone for the organisation, who are
facing the real possibility of running out of funds over the next five years.
There has been several new products launched this year by the
Guardian, and with a director of digital strategy now in place it will no doubt
be fascinating to see which direction the organisation takes. If the figures do
not pick up for the Guardian however, I see no choice other than switching to a
digital only organisation.
