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Comment by alva | Hacker News Reader

Important to note that the Guardian is not actually financially successful at all. They have been suffering heavy losses for years

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/02/01/heavy-losses-...

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Things have got a little better since Viner stepped in. Good take on the state of newspapers, and the particular success of the FT, from ex-editor of Guardian Peter Preston.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/nov/26/financial-time...

They also make use of offshore tax structures to minimise their taxes, such as the £302m profit from selling Auto Trader magazine.

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/04/will-the-guardian-now-...

Yes some what ironic given there role in the paradise papers etc newspapers and the media are always do what I say not what I or my owner does

For most papers, I'd say it's safe to assume the editorial staff do not make financial decisions.

What they (the finance department) do (minimization of their tax bill) is legal and sensible and necessary for the paper's survival. If it were not and this was known to the staff, it would be no excuse morally or legally to say that the staff 'don't make these decisions'.

Are the editorial staff allowed to report on the financial decisions of their owners?

Yes. If you follow the chain of articles back to its end you will find: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/may/03/1

A report by the Guardian on the very same topic.

1) The Guardian doesn't have an 'owner'as such, it is owned by a trust.

2) It did make this deal offshore but it didn't save then tax. Good links above on this

Just checking the references in this article. The offshore tax claim seems to be referenced to "Guido Fawkes" (https://order-order.com/ "Guido Fawkes Blog of plots, rumours and conspiracy") which seems to be a collection of conspiracy articles about all kinds of stuffs, written by this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Staines

Staines is a piece of work but very well connected. Conspiracies, yes, but not conspiracy theories. He's as establishment as a libertarian blogger could hope to be in the UK.

Fawkes is a well respected media-watch type site in the UK. They're humorous, but respected - think The Register but for media.

How would offshore tax structures help them, considering they're making losses at the moment?

It was the profit from the sale of Auto Trader magazine.

There's some further analysis of their finances and strategy in this recent piece from The Drum: http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2017/10/26/how-the-guardian-f...

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