The London Daily News

15 October, 2010 01:29 (GMT +01:00)

Rupert Murdoch's "fail-wall" - "Open" Guardian revenues up 50%

Figures have suggested that the great Rupert Murdoch pay-wall experiment is failing while the "open" Guardian website has increased revenues by 50%.

Circulation figures from ABC show that The Times and Sunday Times print sales fell 14.8% and 9.5% year-on-year respectively.

The strategy was designed to protect hard copy sales but national newspaper decline continues.

The Guardian News & Media Group recorded a 50 per cent increase in digital advertising revenue in the first six months of the financial year, its managing director said this morning.

Tim Brooks said GNM's pursuit of an open access online journalism model – as apposed to a paywall – enabled it to build ad networks around key content areas.

Daily Telegraph sales fell a whopping 17.8 per cent year on year to 659,650. Among the Sundays, The Observer was the biggest faller, down 15.6 per cent to 325,502.

In a move some media analysts previously dubbed "suicidal" the Daily Stars risky 10p cover price strategy appears to be paying off - it became the only national title whose circulation rose, albeit marginally, by 0.09 per cent to 864,315.

Year on year figures look worse after ABC decided to exclude foreign sales and bulk copies from the final tallies.

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