Guardian Reaps Benefits From N.S.A. Scoop

“I’ve got a little story to chat to you about,” she told the editor, Alan Rusbridger.

Last week’s revelations about the extent of N.S.A. surveillance both in the United States and abroad is a major coup for the British news organization, which established a beachhead here less than two years ago. Mr. Rusbridger, who flew to New York from London last Wednesday in anticipation of the scoop, credits the story to the fact that The Guardian continues to invest in journalism when many news organization have cut back.

“We’re internationally engaged,” Mr. Rusbridger said Monday as he sat with Ms. Gibson in The Guardian’s conference room in Manhattan after a nonstop weekend. Outside the conference room, television screens featured reports from a range of networks, all focused on The Guardian’s story.

The scoop may also owe a partial debt to The Guardian’s longstanding liberal and anti-establishment approach to journalism. The newspaper has in recent years aggressively covered, among other stories, the News Corporation hacking scandal, the accusations of sexual abuse against the BBC personality Jimmy Savile, and the WikiLeaks release of diplomatic cables.

In 2012, the paper hired Glenn Greenwald, a high-profile writer, activist and lawyer who Ms. Gibson said “embodies something that is really quite Guardian.” Mr. Greenwald has been a longtime critic the Patriot Act and other national security steps that the government has taken since 9/11.

For the N.S.A. story, the paper allowed him to cross over to the news pages and to cooperate with a source who leaked the N.S.A. documents. Mr. Greenwald said that his source, who on Sunday identified himself as Edward J. Snowden, “knew the views that I had” and “knew that in order for someone to do this story the way it had to be done” he had to be “in an adversarial posture vis-à-vis the U.S. government.”

Barton Gellman, an investigative reporter who had a long career at The Washington Post, said Mr. Snowden also discussed the documents with him. But he balked when Mr. Gellman and The Post would not agree to Mr. Snowden’s timetable for releasing the documents or his request that the paper print all the slides in a PowerPoint presentation about Prism, the government’s extensive online surveillance system.

Laura Poitras, a documentary filmmaker who shared a byline with Mr. Greenwald in The Guardian and Mr. Gellman in The Post in the coverage of the N.S.A. leaks, said in an interview with Salon that Mr. Snowden “had a suspicion of mainstream media.”

David Corn, the Washington bureau chief at Mother Jones magazine — who is probably best known for releasing the Mitt Romney “47 percent” video — said that leakers once sought out established news organizations like television networks and national newspapers but that “that oligopoly no longer exists.”

“If the leak is big enough, it doesn’t matter what platform you choose,” he said. “If it has merit and wow factor, you will get your story out.”

The N.S.A. story also came with benefits: The Guardian Web site recorded its highest day of traffic on Monday, a spokeswoman said.

The Guardian’s parent, Guardian Media Group, loses money, according to its most recent financial statements. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the paper’s circulation in Britain is less than half what it was a decade ago — 192,376 compared with 396,508. While Mr. Rusbridger said he expected the company’s financial situation to improve, The Guardian is exploring new ways to make money, including inviting loyal readers to help financially.

“We are deeply interested in monetizing them,” Mr. Rusbridger said. Many have offered financial support, especially after the Snowden scoop.

Charlie Beckett, director of Polis, a media research group affiliated with the London School of Economics, said plans for growth internationally could help offset losses back home.

“The Guardian is desperately trying to become globally recognized. They do it because they care,” Mr. Beckett said. “But it’s also part of their global business strategy.”

The company has 57 employees in the United States in New York, Washington and Chicago. Its editors do not deny that their journalism walks much closer to the line of advocacy than most American newspapers. Mr. Beckett described The Guardian as serving a role in Britain similar to the one that MSNBC does in the United States.

“Because of the BBC and public service broadcasting, we always have a huge volume of objective and balanced journalism. The newspaper press have always had a tradition of being partisan from the beginning of the 20th century,” Mr. Beckett said.

Ms. Gibson said part of The Guardian’s approach to journalism came from its limited resources. Because it cannot afford to hire beat reporters to cover all topics, its reporters must be driven to write about their passions, like phone hacking or national security, she said.

“They’re not really going to pursue it unless they really, really care about it,” Ms. Gibson said.

Ms. Gibson described the growth of the Web site in the United States as steady and that it would integrate all types of experts into its coverage who it may reach through blogs, commenters and types of social media.

Mr. Rusbridger said, “You are just giving a better account of the world.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/11/business/guardian-reaps-benefits-from-nsa-scoop.html?partner=rss&emc=rss