The top story in my international media newsletter is The Guardian’s great news that it has broken even for the first time since 1998. I worked at the Guardian from 2006 to 2010, and it has been great to see the turnaround since Kath Viner took over as editor.

I think that the BBC article, an extra link not on the newsletter, summarises all of the things that went into this change in fortune. My friend and Indian media-tech superstar Durga Raghunath has the tl:dr version of the BBC’s coverage:

Operating being the operative word but – The commercial strategy – a deeper reader-relationship; greater financial contribution from readers; a better understanding of programmatic advertising; and agility – cutting costs quickly (biggest contribution) https://t.co/Q5yr4Ab8dl

— Durga Raghunath (@durgaraghunath) May 1, 2019

In the BBC analysis, they attribute part of the change in fortune from cost cutting: closing of 450 positions, largely through voluntary redundancy (buyouts) and also reducing the costs of printing by ditching its bespoke Berliner format and going tabloid. But the switch to a membership, reader support led business model has also helped. A lot.

Emily Bell who ran the digital editorial operations when I was there also had a couple of excellent points on Twitter.

One point about this long piece on The Guardian’s current sustainability. The cross-subsidy endowment model is not a happy coincidence it is a *business model*, design over many decades to work this way. It’s not ‘lucky’ or magic cash or accident https://t.co/Czx2Up8xmF

— emily bell (@emilybell) May 1, 2019

(Sorry, just one more point about endowment models for news). Imagine if instead of allowing shareholders/ceos/ boards/ editors / anchors etc to take home often millions of $$ or ££ over decades, truly journalistic organizations had *all* built endowments…..

— emily bell (@emilybell) May 1, 2019

Other top stories in the newsletter today:

• A blog about the data that the UK government isn’t releasing. Love it.
• How the decision by New Zealand’s largest newspaper to launch a digital subscription scheme will affect the media landscape there.
• Get ready. Half of all social media use in the US will be mobile this year. Wait didn’t that happen a long time ago?

That is the newsletter today. If you have a story that you think is worth including, shoot it to me on Twitter @kevglobal. And if you want to subscribe to the newsletter, go here.