The Guardian has published their accounts and reported on them in the paper as well. The report’s headline claims they broke even. If you read the actual accounts you will discover they did not.

The bottom line says they lost £16,600,000 after exceptionals, before exceptionals they lost a mere £7.4 million, just under £1,000 an hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The billion pound Guardian endowment made £42.9 million profit on “investments held at fair value”. Add the investment income from the endowment’s shareholdings to the losses and abracadabra the Guardian breaks even.

Claiming the Guardian broke even last year is “fake news”. The fact is GMG plc holding company made an overall profit thanks to investment income entirely unrelated to the company that produces the newspaper. Before you go, Guardian Media Group’s chief executive, David Pemsel has a small favour to ask, can you contribute to his total pay package of £706,000 a year?