The Guardian initiated its costly 100 million pound stirling Berliner format redesign in the hopes of dramatically increasing circulation. The desired result has not been achieved.

The mid-September Berliner re-launch gained The Guardian some new readers, increasing its circulation to 408,187, but this failed to last and November's circulation figure came in at 401,029.

Despite these figures, chief executive of Guardian Media Sir Robert Phillips told the Daily Telegraph: "We are very pleaed with the increase in circulation and it is in line with what we expected."

Former executive editor of the Guardian Albert Scardino has been very critical of the group's current business model and has accused the group of commercial and managerial failure: "The commercial side of the Guardian has refused to move with the times … Journalistically it is a triumph not just in terms of the newspaper but also its online presence. It has a global readership of around 12m yet the management has no idea how to exploit this huge reach properly … They … are stuck with a business model that went out of style in the 1980s."

Despite the questioned success of the Guardian Berliner redesign, the group plans the same redesign for its Sunday paper The Observer.

Given the recent circulation figure many commentators have questioned whether the Berliner re-design was worth it? Taking on board Scardino's criticisms, one suggestion might be that investment be made in new business models aiming at taking advantage of the paper's online readership.

Source: The Daily Telegraph, and here