Time for a mea culpa. I was rung last week by The Independent for an opinion on the financial troubles of Guardian Media Group. Arguing that the group was not just in trouble because of its digital investments, which may turn to be farsighted spending, I said that non-digital costs were also bearing down on the balance sheet.
And I added: “Spending a staggering amount on presses that have made no difference to the print circulation was a huge mistake.” The Independent got so excited about this soundbite that it reproduced it two days running.
I took hyperbole too far. The investment made by GMG in its new Berliner presses a few years ago didn’t make any difference to The Guardian’s falling circulation – but then neither has anyone else’s investment in new printing equipment stemmed their declines.
Alan Rusbridger
