Is the Guardian worse than it used to be?

You're right, I can't

that adult-aged correspondent realises that chips are made out of potatoes in the next thrilling instalment. And then he explains why TM is going to be a whizz at post-Brexit negotiations because she actually made a burger from scratch once.

Nah, he 'ran off' with his secretary, and eventually brought her back into England with him...

I've see him twice since our wedding, he's met the kids once, when they were three and one.

Story ends. That's the short version.

The point of relating that tale, was that yeah, favouritism sucks, but in my particular case, he loses more than I do.

And now, back to ..

I'm finally glad to be an only child. Thanks, ILX.

always been kinda jealous of orphans meself

Shooting fish in a barrel this one...

https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2017/may/31/sgt-pepper-at-50-could-the-beatles-masterpiece-unite-brexit-Britain

gone already?

Huh, it was on the front page?

https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2017/may/31/sgt-pepper-at-50-could-the-beatles-masterpiece-unite-brexit-Britain

It is still up, unfortunately. They have just moved it.

LOL

i found it be googling "the guardian pepper"

i found this with the same google, which is more useful:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/29/slavic-cooking-pork-goulash-beef-stroganoff-anna-tobias-guest-cook

This passage is especially notable:

The story of Britain is the sum of everybody who has lived on these islands. To exclude sections of their culture is to diminish or distort Britain’s true character, and if we wish to be grounded in a sense of place isolationism will not achieve this. You do not find Englishness by kicking away anything that might appear non-English. You find Englishness simply by being in England and interacting with what life has in store.

i've read the first few pars and it seems like our man is proceeding from the misconception that englishness and britishness are the same thing, is that correct?

ooo goulash

(xp) Rule rather than exception on 'these islands', I would have thought.

i read somewhere really recently that the person responsible for getting everyone (halfheartedly to sometimes remember) to say "british" instead of "english" in this circumstance was max aitken, 1st baron beaverbrook

Wasn't he Scottish?

Scots-Canadian, to be accurate.

born, raised and lived in canada until he was 30-ish -- pals with the canadian BONAR LAW

anyway i was a bit surprised, just bcz his paper was the daily express, which is i believe not currently in this same camp

Tbf "I read the news today oh boy" sums up p much everything Britain nowadays. Visionaries, them scousers.

england and english were used interchangeably with britain and british until the second world war. ajp taylor's english history 1914-1945 famously is actually a history of britain.

scottish people were also referred to as scotch up until around the same time

https://image.spreadshirtmedia.net/image-server/v1/products/5987393/views/1,width=800,height=800,appearanceId=10,backgroundColor=E8E8E8,version=1320836285/whitewhite-i-m-english-not-british-caps-baseball-cap.webp

https://sd.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/i/iam-english-not-british-.png

http://rs902.pbsrc.com/albums/ac225/animal02/I-Am-English_1.gif~c200

This piece rehashes a lot of the same shit as before although it gives a different spin - which doesn't entirely scan - on why The Guardian are so hostile to Corbyn.

The answer is complicated. Its about territory and identity. As projects, New Labour and The Guardian have a lot in common. Ever since I worked there, The Guardian has been on the move, not just physically but mentally. It moved from Manchester to London. The M25 became the boundaries of its new metropolitan world and it lost interest in Scotland and for much of my time there did not even have a correspondent based there.

Then it discovered America and seriously thought it could capture part of Google's digital advertising. The Guardian is like that. It only has two gears - arrogance and blind panic. Hundreds of millions of pounds later, The Guardian found itself stranded off the coast of New Jersey. Now the ship is plodding its way back to Manchester, the pilgrim that never got to the New World.

New Labour harboured the same ambitions to leave a constituency behind in search of a new world and never quite made it. Corbyn dispossessed New Labour of its last vestiges of power.

New Labour was not merely about policy. It was an attempt to permanently change the landscape of the left, hence its concentration on power and leadership. It had a devastating effect on both the party and its concept of leadership. This was why its only response to Corbyn was to go for the man, obsessing about his lack of qualities as a leader - as if the Iraq War, the Libya intervention and the banking crash were examples of sound leadership.

Rumoured to be going tabloid. I really liked the Berliner format, though obv can't remember the last time I bought one.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/06/11/guardian-go-tabloid-abandons-berliner-presses-print-deal-trinity/

dude they just bought those presses like 15 years ago!

It probably would have been cheaper to set up their own coffee processing plant! I think unlike the Graun, the Berliner format is pretty classy tbh.

Berliner format a good answer to an irrelevant question. Does this leave the Telegraph as the last daily broadsheet?

there's also the herald up here in scotchland

The contract will also allow the newspaper to scrap or sell its three Berliner presses, which cost £50m in 2005. It spent a further £30m on printworks in London and Manchester.

say what u like about the graun, it's never afraid to just hurl money straight down the shitter

given the presses are bigger than the new format, can't they just be used for the new format? (or is the expense of *running* the presses the reason they are moving on?)

i imagine that is a massive part of it. iirc they were hoping that other pubs would go berliner and rent the presses from them, making the whole operation more sustainable but that never happened.

britain has this habit of ploughing massive amounts of money into projects in a spasm of optimism without making allowances for what will happen if they don't get lucky. cf straford "international" train station. cf brexit.

guardian has long had a habit of swinging between absurd over-confident world-striding visionary expansion and compete panic -- it is in a bad way currently financially and seems also to be having trouble stepping away from various recent political commitments that were bad not good

it could really REALLY do with a major pundit sweep-out, obviously -- and could perhaps actually make shift to move towards picking up the potential (quite complex) readership revealed by the emerging realignment? (obviously they have some of them)

it is in a bad way currently financially

short of the auto trader sale a while back it's hard to think of a time in the modern era where the graun wasn't explosively haemorrhaging cash tbh

it's wasted several actually p good moves and projects i think -- the money it was losing in the 90s was going towards its transition onto the net, and i think was actually p well spent, potentially a strong investment -- but the next stage of the plan, to become a global rather than a national title≤ has really backfired

That Middle East Eye piece begins to make an interesting parallel with the graun and new labour, but then doesn't really go anywhere with it.

is that the david hearst piece? i need to reread that (the first time i read it i was mainly being startled that i'd never spotted he signs himself "david hearst" and "david hirst" abt equally often, which is unusual in such a high-profile writer: i shd perhaps focus on less trivial aspects)

There's a David Hirst and a David Hearst, no?

ok lol yes they are different now that i've found a photo of each of them

but google is disinclined to separate them

Is Google worse than it used to be?

Is mark s worse than it used to be?

is the 'is the guardian worse than it used to be?' thread worse than it used to be when everyone jumps on the 'is x worse than it used to be?' bandwagon?

Yes

i am better than i used to be: be the change i indicate

Mirror stocks up on this because they'll likely to pay to use mirror presses, so seems like no they can't continue to use theirs.

Barclays analysts on impact for Trinity Mirror (shares up 2%). pic.twitter.com/Hb20plY5IA

— Chris Williams (@cg_williams) June 12, 2017

Today we’re announcing a significant change to the way you experience the Guardian in print: from early 2018 we will move the Guardian and The Observer to tabloid formats.

Over the past six months, we’ve been thinking hard about how we can continue to deliver great journalism to readers through our print editions. At the same time, we’ve also been examining every cost across our organisation, as part of a three-year plan to make the Guardian financially sustainable.

The introduction of the Berliner format in 2005 was a historic moment for the Guardian, and we won award after award for our world-class design and innovation, including world’s best-designed newspaper twice in three years. It is a beautiful format.

We believe there will be a market for quality print journalism for years to come, but declining circulations mean that printing the Berliner is becoming increasingly expensive. Moving to a tabloid format will allow us to be far more flexible in responding to changing print demand. It will allow us to save millions of pounds each year, helping us to become financially sustainable so that we can keep investing in the most important thing: Guardian journalism.

This plan is the outcome of careful consideration, reader research and planning. Early research with some of our most loyal readers has been positive. We have spoken to print readers who have told us clearly that it is the great journalism, photography, graphics and design that they value, not the shape and size of the newspaper. We are going to create a tabloid Guardian and a tabloid Observer that are bold, striking and beautiful. Input from our readers, members and subscribers will be crucial.

The Guardian has signed a contract with Trinity Mirror, who will take over printing and distribution of our newspapers in the new format. If you are a print subscriber, your subscription service will continue as usual.

More people than ever before are reading and supporting the Guardian’s journalism. Today’s announcement further cements our commitment to produce the Guardian and The Observer in print for the foreseeable future – but there’s no doubt that this is a significant moment in our history. The print industry continues to evolve, and we must keep evolving with it.

Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief, Guardian News & Media
David Pemsel, chief executive, Guardian Media Group

It's a shame, but I never, if ever, buy the print version anymore.

Looking forward to seeing the design changes though.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/stevenperlberg/how-the-guardian-lost-america

Gibson, now editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed UK, declined to comment for this story