The Squeeze on Fleet Street

British Prime Minister Harold Wilson's deflationary policies have claimed an unexpected victim: the Fleet Street press. Troubles have been building steadily, but because of the overall slowdown, ad linage has dropped an estimated 25% from last year; only five of the eleven London dailies are still making a profit. This month the Guardian was forced to announce an austerity program: to save $1,400,000 next year, it will lay off 36 writers and editors and cut back other departments as much as 20%.

It was a measure of the hard times that everyone took the announcement in stride--even the unions. Accustomed to protesting any move to reduce the work force, the unions are aware that if the Guardian cannot pare costs, it will probably suspend London production and print only in Manchester. Besides, the unions had already agreed to negotiate layoffs with the London Sun.

By trying to improve its financial condition, however, the Guardian may be adding to its journalistic troubles. It already has far fewer reporters than either of its direct morning competitors--the Times and the Daily Telegraph--and it is being criticized for running too many features and too little news.

Separate Identity. To make matters worse, the competition is stiffening. If the Monopolies Commission approves the deal, the Times will merge with Lord Thomson's prosperous Sunday Times. Thomson can be counted on to galvanize the staid daily. It is possible, too, that Thomson may decide to consolidate his operations and print both London papers on the Sunday Times's modernized presses.* In that case, the Guardian, which prints on the Sunday Time's presses, and the Sunday Observer, which uses the daily Times's plant, might be put in the position of having to buy the daily plant.

But the Guardian, which has doubled circulation to 282,000 since World War II and built up a worldwide reputation as a spokesman for liberalism, is determined to survive. It even toyed with the idea of making a merger offer to the Times. Then it decided against the move. "The obsequies pronounced by some commentators are premature," an editorial in the Guardian observed. "We differ from some others in that we are attempting to resolve our problems without recourse to mergers. We intend to keep the Guardian as a strong, separate and independent newspaper." The promise moved one Guardian reporter to confident hyperbole: "If the Guardian comes down because of the squeeze, the government will too."

* Because of problems with the printing unions, Thompson announced last week that he was dropping plans to produce two new country papers that would have been competitive with the London Evening Standard and the Evening News.

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