11:55 am Oct. 17, 2012
Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of The Guardian, took to Twitter this morning to bat down a report that his newspaper's print edition is on the verge of extinction.
Telegraph story abt the Guardian bit.ly/PBQSzq simply untrue. Largely copied from bit.ly/T0dGYZAlso untrue
— alan rusbridger (@arusbridger) October 17, 2012
Numbers for going digital only & junking print just don't add up. So Telegraph has written the opposite of the truth.
— alan rusbridger (@arusbridger) October 17, 2012
Rusbridger was referring to a story in The Telegraph that stated:
Senior figures at Guardian News & Media are seriously discussing the move to an entirely online operation, it has been claimed, leaving Mr Rusbridger increasingly isolated.
The longstanding Guardian chief wants to develop the Guardian’s digital-only US operation before pulling the plug on the print edition, in the hope that it will provide a useful blueprint for the online business in Britain
In June of 2011, The Guardian adopted a "digital first" strategy, pumping more resources and editorial firepower into its online newsgathering operation while restructuring the print edition as more of an analysis-oriented evening read. The publication announced this July that its website had become the third most-read newspaper site in the world.
A cornerstone of the venerable U.K. title's digital expansion has been its agressive push into the American market with a New York-based U.S. online edition that has staffed up with an array of high-profile writers, the most recent being financial journalist Heidi N. Moore.
"We need to make [the U.S.] into an audience rather than a passing audience," Janine Gibson, editor of Guardian News, the American website, told Capital last year. "We're not actually short of readers. What we would like to do is become more than the third or fourth on their daily or monthly reading schedule."
But as The Guardian brand has expanded overseas, the flagship paper has simultaneously weathered several rounds of downsizing, fueling speculation that its days could be numbered.
Rusbridger is scheduled for a New York Press Club event in November, during which he is expected to address "economic challenges," according to a listing for the event.
