OPEN

The Observer proudly announces on its front page that its relaunch in the new "Berliner" format has helped it add 100,000 new readers in January. But I wonder just how great the impact of that will be on its bottom line.

Bigger market share for a newspaper these days doesn’t necessarily mean revenue growth – witness New International’s decision to make 650 of its people redundant last week. According to The Independent:

The company, whose titles include The Times and The Sun, said that
cover price and circulation increases were failing to make up for lower
advertising revenues and the costs of the major reorganisation of
printing.

I think that The Observer and its weekday sister title The Guardian have been greatly improved and I much prefer the new format. I’ve noticed that, especially on Saturdays and Sundays (days when I buy a paper personally as, naturally, we get all the dailies at the office in the week) I’m less likely to pick up the Sunday Times or the Independent for a change than previously.

But the future of these titles is more tied up with the impressive innovation and investment they have made online. Here The Guardian is not just a UK front-runner but a world leader, alongside the BBC. Guardian Unlimited is the reportedly the  fourth most referenced news source on the web and its Ricky Gervais podcast is the most downloaded in the world.