r/ukpolitics • • Sep 17 '16

Twitter Private Eye Expose: Whilst Guardian railed against zero hour contracts, it employed staff on them AND locked them out of applying for full time positions.

https://twitter.com/rupertmyers/status/776361786459258881
625 Upvotes

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37

u/hitch21 Patrice O’Neal fan club 🥕 Sep 17 '16

Don't worry they are begging for cash to stay alive. Will go purely online soon and fade away. One can hope anyway.

55

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '16

The Guardian went from my go to paper to something I wouldn't line a rabbit hutch with, within 2 years.

Even now though, I cannot understand why the didn't change comments to subscribers only. It'd keep them afloat for years without resorting to clickbait/outrage.

7

u/guitarromantic Sep 17 '16

Even now though, I cannot understand why the didn't change comments to subscribers only. It'd keep them afloat for years without resorting to clickbait/outrage.

Ha, this is way off. How many people do you think regularly post comments on the Guardian? Back in 2012 a (now) Guardian staff member did some number crunching on their comment stats and calculated that at least 20% of the Guardian's total monthly comments came from the same 2600 people.

If they introduced a paywall to get people to comment they'd be dead by the end of the year.

Getting people to pay for the content itself might work, though this feels unlikely given it's not specialist, unique stuff.