Data Journalism Guardian Style
A decade or so ago Guido spent years reading company annual reports. They are an art form nowadays, beautifully presented multimedia spectaculars. Like much great art they take reality and twist it. Guido likes to read the Guardian Media Group’s annual report to see how their hedge fund investments are doing, how many hundreds of millions of pounds they are hiding from the taxman in the Caymans and how much the editor of the people’s broadsheet, Alan Rusbridger, is getting paid. Since you ask, £605,000 all in with benefits, up 7% from last year, though if you read the Guardian’s own report you might not understand that because apparently ”in nominal terms his salary in 2010/11 was unchanged” despite somehow managing to take home £44,000 more in salary this year than last year. Tough gig being the Guardian journalist who writes up the boss’s pay.
Take a look at this chart of GMG plc’s revenues as depicted in the annual report. At first glance they look solid, with a good base. As your eyes move naturally from left to right things look like they are getting bigger and better. Look again and you see that actually revenue has fallen in five years from £593 million to £255 million. Some of that narrowing of the revenue base is due to selling off a large part of the family silver, Auto Trader, in 2008. An accidental visual deception?
Guido has re-jigged the chart to make things clearer, the traditional bar-chart shows revenue has dropped by a further third since 2008. Anyone might think that the annual report was trying to obscure the obvious, that The Guardian is a loss making vanity publishing concern run by people who abhor capitalism and profit-making. Presumably those that will keep their jobs are happy about not making profits…
Lefties running out of money?
Heard that one before…..
maybe polly will make a donation to keep herself in a job…
She must do already cos they obviously don’t employ her for her insight
They could always ask for a refund!
More business are going under, FTSE is dropping. How long has this government left?
Until early 2015.
Isn’t Dave renting the pool house of her villa?
We asked to believe the analysis of a man who claimed only a few days ago that the work of a creationist scientist was in fact the work of NASA.
You should think carefully about publishing lies – it destroys your credibility.
Tackle the man not the ball, the leftist credo.
So, Dino, you have proof this financial analysis is wrong? If so, do provide it, please.
I haven’t read it. It may be correct, it may not. My point is Guido lacks credability, read his “NASA post” – it’s a crock of sh!t.
A Tory stooge prone to misleading posts attacks the Guardian….and I’m supposed to take that at face value….no thanks
Haha we’ve found the last rube who still believes CAGW isn’t a scam.
I’m not commenting on the mertis of CAGW or the Guardian’s financial arrangements.
I’m pointing out that Guido should not be trusted.
@Dino
You are fully entitled to accept a full refund etc…….
Most of us make up our own minds.
Guido correctly stated that the data came from NASA. It shows more outgoing radiation from the mesosphere than is allowed for in AGW models. This has been pointed out by a person some of whose other beliefs are wrong.
The AGW theory is held mainly as a matter of faith, unsupported by observation.
Do you? Really?
I get the impression you slavishly follow Guido.
Anyway that’s not relevant. The point is Guido makes misleading posts – so you can’t take what he says at face value. I haven’t got the time to read every report Guido quotes….maybe you have.
What Guido said was this:
“NASA, the sort of people that do not get their scientific facts wrong, may not be putting people in space anymore, but are certainly not going quietly”
Combined with NASA logo I think implies NASA research, which it wasn’t. It was NASA data interpreted by a creationist scientist. That IS misleading.
The paper was inconclusive and the numbers weren’t actually good enough.
What was reported (and reproduced) was a third hand piece that had little relation to the actual paper. Science churnalism of the worst sort. Admittedly he did add a link to the actual paper fairly rapidly.
Dino,
I said the report was based on Nasa satellite data. Not that it was a Nasa report. In fact we linked to the report which was pretty clearly not a Nasa report.
Hope that helps.
Guido,
They don’t abhor capitalism – which is why they invest in tax-haven hedge funds to evade UK taxes. They just abhor others benefiting from capitalism.
Guardianistas have a really tough role trying to balance their moral stances with their greed. Perhaps we should pity them more?
But they neither try to balance their moral stances nor recognise their own hypocrisy.
PollyTwaddle is as ugly as Leona Hemsley as well, although not as rich!
I think we should be more charitable. Polly does not appеar to have much in the way of brains, to read her rantings, but she must have something to make all that dosh from such complete rubbish. And we ought not to criticise her for her appеarance. It is not her fault that she looks like a fucking turkey.
> she must have something to make all that dosh from such complete rubbish.
Nepotism
Box of spanners. Shirley?
If you think she’s an insane ranting nutjob, you should have met her old dad. And his.
“Islam, Christianity and Judaism all define themselves through disgust for women’s bodies” Polly Toynbee 2001.
One can see their point in her instance.
She must have something…? Yes, she’s got the Gu@rdian – hopefully not for long though.
Peter – the air is thin and foggy on their moral pinnacle. This may explain why they can’t recognise anything!
Thats the left for you isnt it? Industrial strength hypocrisy from the worlds biggest hypocrites.
I thought Lefties did not run out of money, they just get someone else to pay the bills and debts.
VIGLEN INSIDER TRADING
+70,000 TROUSERED FROM OTHER ‘NOT IN THE KNOW’ VIGLEN INVESTORS IN 24 HOURS
SLAP ON THE WRIST, CARRY ON AS YOU WERE!
HERE, HAVE HALF A DOZEN JOBS IN THE UK + USA!
Change of subject-were you all aware of my sexual magnetism?-apparently all MP’S have this.My colleague Handycock is especially endowed with such powers which most teenagers find irrestible
Can we rearrange the party to celebrate when they finally go under? I can’t do next weekend.
With only 300,000 readers and one on every desk at the Labour Party Broadcasting arm, the BBC – it’s quite amazing how much influence they have…….now where is my scythe…..first end all government advertising, next……..?
Oooh if you are taking requests, could you do Richard Bacon and Nicky Campbell?
NOW YOUR TALKING!!!!!!!!!!!
BIGGEST PAIR OF HuntS (AFTER MORON) IN EXISTENCE – JUST WAIT UNTIL THE OLYMPICS, THEY WILL INFEST EVERY FUCKING SHOW THE BBC INFLICT ON US.
o/t I know, but I predict not much sport and plenty of talking heads talking endlessly to each other.
NOT good TV.
I was thinking of leaving the country while everyone screamed with excitement at some people running hard like children or hurling things through the air.
However, with the Beeb and others who have an interest in the bread and circuses theory of “democracy” already winding themselves into screams of excitement (“only one year to go!”) it looks like a rather late gap year is called for.
I do have a quiet chuckle, though, at poor old Londoners, who having had to contribute to the cost of the jamboree, are being asked to cease normal activities, such as going on public transport to earn an honest crust, while the sacred Games are on.
And never forget, Sheffield is still having to pay back the cost of the student games of God knows when. Remember them? No, nor do I.
Let’s hope the Biased Broadcasting Corporation isn’t going to inflict Nicky ‘Neil Kinnock is my Friend’ Campbell on us as presenter of the Daily Politics Show.
I am afraid…that my work is too important for these reprobates my friends……I am a very busy Reaper….and where do I begin?
How about The Beckhams, all telly chefs esp Ramsay, Shrek Rooney etc etc etc….well, Grim?
PS Have you noticed how zillionaire telly chefs have now all gone quiet about insisting on green issues and we must only buy chickens at £50 each blah blah blah during these Hard Times??
So what? Just print an extra 150,000 copies and your circulation will go up 50% overnight. Worked for us – Gordon was a genius.
By the way, we are enjoying the pool and Yvette is having a ball.
As long as the Scott trust has the money to cover their losses the Grauniad is not going to disappear.
Who bankrolls the Scott Trust ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Trust
Interesting on its history, but lacking detail on assets and holdings as well as offshore interests. Probably subject to constant Guardian editing of Wiki.
I think they should hire Kelvin Mackenzie (1 ‘O” Level) to save them from going under – his ideas are always cutting edge, he is able to think outside of his box, right brain/left brain (No Brain, Ed.) dueling to bring virtuoso creativity to the fore – he could introduce ideas like this at the Guardian to end the decline and inevitable fall of a once great communist tradition!
“in 1995, MacKenzie joined Mirror Group Newspapers and was appointed joint boss of their fledgling L!VE TV British cable television channel. MacKenzie introduced features such as nightly editions of ‘Topless Darts’ (featuring topless women playing darts on a beach), ‘The Weather in Norwegian’ (with a young, typically blonde and bikini-clad Scandinavian woman presenting weather forecasts in both English and Norwegian), other weather forecasts featuring dwarfs bouncing on trampolines and stock exchange reports presented by Tiffany, a young female presenter who would strip naked as she read out the latest share prices. A large amount of airtime was given over to tarot card readers and astrologers. L!VE TV’s best known character was the News Bunny, a man dressed as a giant rabbit who popped up during news broadcasts to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to the various news stories to indicate whether or not he found them interesting or exciting.”
The man’s a fucking Meeja Genius!
A metaphor for Soviet economics and the likely outcome for any further socialisation of our economy, or allowing those wretched lefties in Brussels from passing further intrusive legislation.
its all about hypocrsy (typical leftie trait), The Guardian campaigns for tax avoiders to be named and shamed but do the same themselves.
They teamed up with UKuncut to target compaines that adbidded be the law.
All we ever see is hypocrsy, violence and intolorence from the left and that is why they are fuck-heads.
Guido, are you a little butthurt that you couldn’t make it into the big money?
Yeah, he is really sorry that he makes a profit from the blog; surely he knows by now that to be a member of the fourth estate you need the ability to piss money up the wall like nothing on earth!
…and a cavalier attitude towards expenses…
And safeguard the truth from the proles. An ignorant population will fall for almost anything.
“GMG is wholly owned by the Scott Trust, which exists to safeguard the Guardian newspaper in perpetuity.”
In perpetuity – rather ambitious given the circumstances.
Are you suggesting that this impedes their capacity for excellent journalism? I smell ad hominem.
What excellent journalism? Have I missed something then?
Back in the day the Manchester Guardian was a respected newspaper, and I suspect the founding Scott’s would not be impressed with the current shower of leftie turds running the paper into the ground.
RICH leftie turds please.
Strange that its leisure pages are some of the best in dead tree journalism, especially on food.
Equates to champagne socialism?
The Manchester Guardian was a genuinely Liberal paper, founded by JE Taylor, not the socialist agitprop rag it is today. Manchester Liberals, who believed in personal and economic freedom, personal responsibility and private charity would be horrified at what their paper – and City – has degenerated into.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Edward_Taylor
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/HistTopics/Zero.html
Ad feminam, though our Pol’s not likely to appreciate correct reference to her gender.
Well said, Guido.
This is the same GMG that couldn’t actually give a flying fuck about phone hacking but is simply using it to pursue a demented vendetta against News International – with Labour, a vindictive Parliament and the BBC in tow.
Murdoch and Co have done wrong but NI is a hugely profitable and successful company, providing employment for thousands worldwide and started from scratch – more than useless tossers like Rusbridger, Davis, Bryant et al will ever do in their poxy sordid lives.
Making rich people poor, makes poor people rich.
Destroying a successful company makes a crappy one successful.
It’s as transparent as a pane of glass. Truly their comtempt for the British public knows no depths.
Fair point. And NI/SKY makes it’s profits from people who hand over their money of their own free will.
The Grauniad gets its diminishing stash from money taken from people by statute (taxes which are used to fund public sector classified job ads) and the threat of criminal sanction (BBC license fee) The Guardian enjoys a near monopoly on BBC recruitment ads.
And its just so dull – page after page of dreary, whingeing, self righteous twaddle.
Time it joined the Screws….
Be careful of what you wish for.
New York Times state that PBS is considering coming to London this year, where it would be a fellow traveller bedmate of the lefty BBC.
Perhaps they are seeking a government handout like the BBC tried for in USA?
Even more constant vitriolic poison on the airwaves Pravda style.
Spot on.
I have never massaged figures to make them look better
I agree, you may have Tenderised and Bludgeoned, but never massaged!
Tell me about it
Mandy’s bum hole would beg to differ Sarah
2+2 is five.
or possibly 3.
Or 87.
Depends what you’re trying to hide.
The Arabs invented 0. Gordon invented 0% growth.
The Indians did.
The Indians invented 0% growth?
and ‘Prosperity for all’
Ahhh, but is this a structural deficit or a cyclical deficit?
http://www.libdemvoice.org/could-you-edit-the-guardian-24890.html
moral deficit
Incredible – GMG makes continuous and ever enlarged losses, whilst conversely Mr. Rusbridger’s emoluments seem ever increasing.
Greedy bankers?? Greedy newspaper editors too.
What was that about aligning banker’s remuneration packages with the long term success of their employer? Perhaps Rusbridger needs his emolument package aligning too?
At what point, following the sale of auto Trader (profitable) and reduced advertising revenue for public sector jobs (profitable), does the whole grauniad thingy become unsustainable.
How long can the Scot trust go on losing > £50 million a year ?
As long as the hedge funds profits keep rolling in, so I’d give it about 5 minutes more…
‘Scot’ and ‘trust’ in the same sentence ?????
I cried when i read about this.
Now you know what it’s like for the rest of us to read the total wank you copy and paste.
Looks like something that Straw bloke would draw to support his ‘evidence based’ shite.
His debt figures usually stop in 2009.
They avoid the doubling of public spending 09/10.
And he also likes to report on how easily the UK paid for its WW2 war loans.
Without mentioning they were fixed for 50 yrs at 2%. And we still failed to pay on six occasions.
And that the UK received foreign aid equal to the same amount as the war debts.
But Straw’s redeeming feature is that he isn’t Mehdi Hassan.
Are you sure?
Definitely.
Straw’s isn’t Mehdi Hassan.
“UK received foreign aid equal to the . . war debts” – ? wtf?
Will or Jack?
Probably both.
Maybe if we can get tits on Page 3 and a smile off the Page 7 fella we can start making some money…..mmmm…mmm
Chief Constable and his Deputy are both arrested in corruption probe
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2021706/Chief-Constable-Deputy-arrested-corruption-probe.html
This site wants a final solution for the Guardian.
From said organ: ”So the leader of the Labour party has a genuinely inquiring mind, unlike David Cameron whose favourite writer appears to be Jeremy Clarkson.”
Game set and match
I loved it yesterday when Bring Back Communism on radio 4 stated that Milliband was a visionary leader. Not a whit of evidence on this statement of course.
They were remarking on his observed holiday reading, or the stuff he wants BBC and Gruniard to believe he reads. No one reflected to ask the question, if he is such a visionary leader why does he need to read books on the subject – why not write them.
Must be something to do with a failed edukashion sistem.
The bloody thing is a rag full of marxist tosh written by lefty creeps who, for some unknown reason, think they own the higher moral ground.
So a pox on them and the crap that they assert and don’t even get me started on that stupid bovine menopausal bint Polly T.
Post-menopausal, please!
Ditto BBC
It is odd that saying leftie things makes one feel good, and I suppose it’s why lefties go on the way they do about “vulnerable ” people being attacked and “fairness” (what is fair? Is it giving the earnings of workers to those who won’t work?)
It doesn’t mean lefties really do care- some do, I expect, but in my experience, not many- but they do like to feel good, and if spouting rubbish and massaging figures goes with leftiness, well, who cares?
A decade ago? Does this mean RealGuido has fixed his roof?
While you are at it you might want to look at the “freelance contract” on which some of the big hitters are said to be on. Nick Davies, for instance, has never worked anywhere else for at least 20 years. Despite this does he manage to persuade the HMRC he is a freelance? One law for the public school brigade. One for the rest.
They are still fucking robbing Barons and Pirates, just like they always were.
Erm…robber barons I think you mean.
Robbing Barons might be lucrative but pirates probably much less so.
Robber Barons yes, but robbing was their forte – nothing has changed, that’s why we invaded Libya, after their oil, that’s why Bliar supported all those wars, he is just another Pirate, after plunder for his masters. Well, rewarded too, just like in the old days…
Believe in compo for child killers? Vote Labour
Piss head or retard?
Money For Nothing = Fundamental Tenet of Socialism.
Guido, I might be inclined to accept your assertion of “hiding” profit/loss news if it wasn’t for the fact that the first sentence of the report you link to clearly states that The Guardian and The Observer are losing money. I’ve heard of hiding things in plain view but come-on. You damage your credibility and weaken your argument when you behave like the nutters that see rain being wet as a conspiracy of raincoat manufacturers.
..shhhh. Its a secret.
Oh for FFS, pictures are what are looked at. No one reads words. The Sun taught us that.
You could argue that the Guardian is showing tremendous self-sacrifice, taking huge losses to deliver the public first-class reporting, excellent features and, most of all, a commitment to progressive politics (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1474828/Guardian-calls-it-quits-in-Clark-County-fiasco.html) .
Articles by the likes of by Islamic supremacist Abdel Bari Atwan (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/31/chance-ramadan-islam-conquests-libya) and deranged crypto-communist Seumas Milne (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/28/rage-muslims-no-loner-breivik) show that this magnificent organ is fiercely committed to its liberal vahlyooooooooz.
Or you could argue that the Guardian is a hugely self-important rag run by commercially incompetent fools and it only survives through huge government subsidies.
Actually, if it ditched the Comment section and turned the pomposityometer down a notch or two, it would be a decent read.
You could argue that Rupert Murdoch has shown tremendous self-sacrifice by allowing the Times to carry on being published at a loss of 40-odd million a year for God knows how long. However, according to the sanctimonious hypocrite Rusbridger, his evil empire must be destroyed for the good of the British media.
By the way, I bet Rusbridger couln’t make a profit out of anything to save his hypocritical, condescending ar**.
Record Cocaine Haul Worth £300m Found In UK – what actually happens with the haul? Surely in the current economic climate the government should sell it onto druggies and help reduce the deficit
Drugs shouldnt be illegal in the first place.
what i put in my body is my choice.
What I put in other mens bodies is my choice too.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/the-daily-cartoon-760940.html
42 – I echo that!
The BBC will have to hand it over to the police.
the MoD could reduce the deficit by stopping flying fucking planes over my house – just fucking stop it
All papers are going down the pan. How they choose to disguise that slide should provide some fun in the coming few years.
These results clearly indicate that without all those public sector job adverts in the paper in the period 1997-2010,thanks to labour, the paper would have had to reduce its huge westminter staff numbers much earlier than it eventually will have to, provided labour don’t return into office soon.
The results also highlight that all the investigations into the relationhips between politicians and the media should look into labour’s clever scheme to send all public sector job adverts to Guardian in return for biased reporting from a broadsheet. Public sector includes all quangos, beeb, nhs and education etc. There will be no email evidence but conservative MPs should call in labour hot shots and guardian executives to ask them whether there was a policy to send all adverts to Guardian in return for partisan reporting. In addition, there should be a count of square inches of public sector job adverts in papers (with some scanning it won’t be too hard) and calcualte difference between ads in guardian, Indeoendent and other newspapers.
Finally, and Guardian as well as Labour can not object to this, there should come a law requiring the government to spread its advertising budget across all media types and media groups to prevent the hidden purchase of newsrooms. Annual reporting on the advertising spent should also become compulsory.
PS for taxpayers it would be preferable if all public sector job ads are loaded on just one website to save money.
Lack of job adverts hasn’t stopped the biased reporting though. You’d think they’ed take a hint, wouldn’t you?
Expect lots of column inches and editorials nudging (ha!) libdems to break with conservatives following the conference season.
Guardian is keeping up the good work for labour because they hope the good times will return. That’s why this law requiring government tp spread its advertising should come in pronto!
Guardian’s support for libdems before elections and AV after that was merely aimed at keeping or getting labour back in power.
The Guardian is a great British institution & public sector non job advertising revenues from the taxpayer to the Guardian are safe in Conservative hands.
if you rub Vaseline into a spread sheet it will make the number lovely and warm
Fuck them all
the politicians, the media, the police, local councils, wayne rooney
fuck them all
they are all c-u-n-t-s who don’t give a damn about anybody but themselves
FFS Guido, you filter c u n t and t u r d out, but let Wayne Rooney through? I was just about to eat my lunch.
Sadly Anonymous old chap I have to agree with you.
Given this long-established and profound expertise of yours, Fawkes, why don’t you break up a few more apposite balance sheets?
May I suggest a QUANGO or two – perhaps The Equality & Human Rights Commission for a start?
Personally, I always find the auditors’ reports particularly piquant.
The Guardian’s future is not in question. I would expect the entire operation to be amalgamated with BBC News. Rusbridger, Tonybee etc would obviously receive substantial salary increases to keep them in line with current BBC pay levels.
Well done guido you plugged 5 numbers into excel and had a cheap swipe at the guardian. formatting point – you might want to take the decimal place off the axis. make it clearer
Do, please, take a flying one!
you obsolete public sector workload consultant, just ask youself, would you purchase the Guardian if you didn’t get that taxpayer-funded salary?
Dear council worker, I noticed your post at 1:18, I hope you are not claiming 18 minutes of overtime for this.
Yours,
The taxpayer.
It’s ok,just a little negative growth that’s all.
On Guido Fawkes’ e-petition for the restoration of capital punishment
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2011/08/on-guido-fawkes-e-petition-for.html
That Cranmer is a boring ©unt.
Give it up Billy you knob, you know you’re all sorts of wrong.
His Grace appears to make the elementary error of supposing that because a thing is permissible, it is advisable. I don’t dispute that the State has the right to inflict capital punishment, but I think it would be wrong to do so.
Little wonder the smug little get is smiling.
Public sector job advertising in the Guardian is safe under rusty Dave Camerons Conservatives.
Why? It won’t help us getting less biased beeb coverage despite all those guardian journalists commenting on beeb programs
Monkier theft should be puished with a dildo up the bum.
I have not posted any videos or links on this thread!
Not much of a punishment if that’s your hobby.
It was me. When and where can I claim my punishment?
I have advised the IMF to sell all the worlds gold to the Galactic Federation and buy euros.
ePolitix is shit and they dont post comments that challenge them
Does my bottom line look big in this?
You..Your silly haircut, socks’n sandals, aversion to soap and bean breath can straight right off.
That Guardian, eh? Cheeky monkeys they are….just not cricket.
Mr Rusbridger once told me not to touch Piers Morgan with a bargepole. But now the Romping Arse looks likely to bring down MGN, he is remarkably silent on the subject.
Meanwhile, idle hacks refuse to look harder at Mirror horses about to bolt….
http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/hackgate-day-202-can-we-please-focus-on-the-mirror-group-horse-before-it-bolts-too/
I suppose we should be applauding them for starting the graph at zero – although starting at anything other than zero would make things look worse.
Guido Fawkes begins crisis talks with Chris Huhne.
+1 prosecution real soon now . . .
NYT on the money again with details of cash payment system at NOTW. More to come on this. http://nyti.ms/o2fODU
Enjoying getting BJs off Bill Keller?
Under Financial Reporting Standard 3 (‘FRS3′) you are supposed to separate out the results of a discontinued operation. The GMG’s accounts appear to be non-compliant as they include the 2007 turnover of Auto Trader.
FRS3, para 14 states that the minimum disclosure for discontinued operations is their inclusion in the notes to the financial statements. If you look to note 9 of the ’08 Annual Report (as read with the financial review on p.27), GMG appear to have complied.
ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY. Failing newspaper for sale. Loyal readership and favoured crossword. Editor and overseas staff in post. Large-print version available for the bewildered and BBC Departmental Heads. Newsfeed for unbiased media, inc. radio. Current MOT but veers to the left. This will go fsat! Colour brochure available. Further details from Goingdown The Pan & Sons, Float Street
All good businesses run deficits. Look at the UK economy, the Italian economy, the Irish economy. Then look at the executives in charge. Aren’t they doing nicely for themselves? Point proved, I think. So it is with the Grauniad – just because it isn’t making a dirty profit doesn’t mean that it can’t pay nice salaries to right-on journalists.
Falling circulation, falling performance, rising salary. Of course it’s logical if you are concentrating flat out on killing your competition – not by fair means but foul. They understand this is the right priority at the BBC, even if you don’t Guido.
Football club economics rules the west – awaiting the giant bubble to burst.
Has there ever been a successful economic Socialist government?
Competition time.