The Observer axes its magazines.. the beginning of the end for Sunday broadsheets?

It has been announced within the last few weeks that the Observer Newspaper is set to close its magazines. The weekly broadsheet, first published in 1791, was the worlds first Sunday newspaper and it has a truly illustrious past. However, although it was named British Newspaper of year as recently as 2007, falling ABC figures has led to speculation about the paper shutting down.

In August this year it was widely reported that the paper would close but this hasn't happened and instead a signficant editorial change has been made to try and bring revenue and costs closer together. The popular monthly magazines will all cease to exist, the format will be reduced to four main sections (news, sport, review and The Magazine), and several staff will be reassigned across The Guardian network.

However, is this just delaying the inevitable? The costs involved in producing a Sunday broadsheet are huge and large circulation figures are required to generate the required sales and advertising revenue to make a paper a viable business - especially in todays economic climate. The format changes to the Observer will save costs but they are unlikely to add to the papers comparatively (versus papers like the Daily Mail and Sunday Times) small circulation figures. As such the paper is likely to continue to lose money so it can surely only be a matter of time before it no longer makes business sense to publish it.

It will be a sad day when The Observer loses its battle and it seems that The Independent may unfortunately follow suit, but it seems that big loses to the media industry such as these are what is needed as to fast track the radical changes required.

Online news and content is the way forward, the newspaper industry just needs to figure out how to evolve.

What is probably in store for England fans at the World Cup 2010

The link above is to a short but powerful video that reviews England's performance at the 2006 World Cup. On the whole it was a nerve shattering experience and this film brings back the feeling of how close we were to going out early and then how close we were to going to the later stages. With much the same team that went in 2006 set to go in 2010 have we really got a chance of getting past a quarter final penalty shoot out loss?

Wilkinson is the shining light in England's opening Autumn International defeat

Rugby Union is starting to get exciting again. With only two years until the World Cup in New Zealand and six years until the tournament hits British soil, there is plenty to draw wide-spread attention to the game. However, since the heroics of 2007 where England grafted their way to the World Cup Final, the national side has seen a series of high profile setbacks restrict their progress. The retirement of key figures such as Lawrence Dallaglio, Jason Robinson and Martin Johnson has meant that players with little international experience have had to step up and perform. Little consistency in the English line-up has meant the team has never really gelled and ahead of the opening match of the Autumn Internationals last weekend the first XV was low on national team game time.

However,  one crucial return to fitness and form meant that it wasn't all doom and gloom in the lead up to the game against Australia. Jonny Wilkinson's move from Newcastle to Toulon in the Summer was seen by some as the last roll of the dice for the injury prone number 10 but so far its been a huge success. He has managed to find the form and happiness in the game that makes him Union's most potent ever weapon. Wilkinson is the highest test point scorer of all time and recent research from Gillette Winter Defence has revealed that England have won 78% of their games over the last ten years with him playing versus 47% of their games when he has been missing.

The research unsuprisingly revealed  that Wilkinson's attacking impact is an average of 3 points per game for England. However it also revealed that with him playing England concede an average of 4 points less a game which is backed up by his average tackle count of 8.8 per game. It seems as though Wilkinson has returned to the World stage when Johnson needed him most and at a great time for him personally in his career.

Therefore it was no suprise that in the lead up to the clash with Australia the attention and expectation of the nation fell upon Jonny's shoulders. As always he thrived under the pressure and although England lost to an emerging Australian side Wilkinson was most definitely back to his best, kicking 9 points, tackling hard and leading on and off the pitch (click the link above to see extended highlights on BBC iPlayer).

The Autumn Internationals are mostly definitely a time for England to experiment, gel and grow as a team. The learnings that Martin Johnson will take from the series will define the squad that goes into next years Six Nations and the success of that team will certainly have an impact on the team going into the 2011 World Cup. One thing is certain - The Wilkinson Effect is alive and kicking and English coaches, players and fans will want to keep it that way for the foreseeable future.