The publisher of the Guardian and Observer newspapers is close to axing the print editions of its newspapers, despite the hopes of its editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger to keep them running for several years.

Senior figures at Guardian News & Media are seriously discussing the move to an entirely online operation, it has been claimed, leaving Mr Rusbridger increasingly isolated.

The longstanding Guardian chief wants to develop the Guardian’s digital-only US operation before pulling the plug on the print edition, in the hope that it will provide a useful blueprint for the online business in Britain.

However, trustees of the Scott Trust, GNM’s ultimate owner, fear it does not have enough cash on its books to sustain the newspapers for that long, according to More About Advertising, the website run by former Marketing Week editor Stephen Foster.

The Guardian publisher has spent the last few years battling to stem losses of ￡44m a year. However, it has been slow to make savings and any money that it has clawed back has been spent on expanding its US and online operations.

The investments helped to fuel a 16pc increase in digital revenues to ￡45.7m last year, but this was not enough to balance GNM’s operating losses.

Guardian Media Group, GNM's parent company fared even worse. Its operating losses more than doubled to ￡129.1m after nearly ￡55m of write-offs.

Meanwhile, the company has been forced to steadily shrink the Guardian newspaper, getting rid of some of its flagship supplements. GNM has also pledged to axe up to 100 of its 650 editorial staff.

Last year, GNM also looked at closing the ￡80m printing plant it opened seven years ago, and moving its printing presses out of London.

However, it now seems more likely to stop running the presses altogether.

A GNM spokesman denied that it intends to stop printing newspapers, saying they would “remain the foundations of our organisation for many years to come”. The newspapers generate three quarters of GNM’s revenues but do not turn a profit.

(Read by Brian Salter. Brian Salter is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)