Former Guardian editor Rusbridger leaves parent company as it seeks new chair
The Guardian said Friday Alan Rusbridger, who stepped down last year as the U.K. newspaper’s editor-in-chief, will not become chairman of its parent company, the Scott Trust, as had been planned.
Rusbridger, who led the paper's newsroom for 20 years, said he will also resign as a board trustee and leave the nonprofit company because its new management wants "to plot a route into the future with a new chair." In late 2014, he was named to replace the current board chair, Liz Forgan, who plans to vacate the position in September.
Rusbridger said the decision was tied to the company's financial condition. Under Rusbridger, the Guardian aggressively expanded its digital initiatives, including launching the online-only versions in the U.S. and Australia. But the company has suffered losses as print advertising sales, which are its main revenue source, continue to decline. Earlier this year, it revealed plans to roll back its budget by 20% in the next three years and cut 250 jobs in a restructuring move aimed at a return to profitability. In March, Guardian Media Group, the Scott Trust's unit that publishes the Guardian and the Observer newspapers, posted operating losses amounting "to £58.6 million (about $84.2 million) in the year to the end of March," the Guardian reported.
“The economic climate facing all newspapers has changed drastically in the last 12 months,” Rusbridger said in a statement Friday. “It’s obvious that new business models will have to be created and I can understand why a new team would want a new chair. I send my former colleagues every possible good wish for the future.”
The company said it plans to undertake “an open and transparent process to appoint” Forgan’s successor.
Rusbridger, who joined the Guardian as a reporter in 1979, had been on the Scott Trust’s board since 1999. He was replaced last year by Katharine Viner as the paper’s editor-in-chief, a promotion that made her the first woman to run the 195-year-old British newspaper. In June, 2015, Guardian Media Group promoted David Pemsel as the unit's CEO.
"Kath and David clearly believe they would like to plot a route into the future with a new chair and I understand their reasoning. I have a fantastically interesting new life in Oxford. I will miss you all," Rusbridger wrote in a memo to staffers.
“Alan Rusbridger’s contribution to the Guardian over 20 years as editor-in-chief is immeasurable,” Forgan said. “He has been the creative leader of this place and an inspiration to generations of journalists. His decision reflects his enormous integrity and his dedication to the Guardian.”