What has The Guardian done to its daily listings this week? They’ve got substantially worse – especially for radio.
To give you an idea what I’m talking about, here’s an example of last Thursday’s radio page:

And here’s the equivalent page today:

The more observant may notice that it’s now only half a page. We’ve lost the Pick of the Day column which used to highlight one or more programmes to listen out for.
We’ve also lost loads of stations. Previously, The Guardian had detailed and easy to read listings for Radio 3, Radio 4 and Radio 7 – arguably the three channels that needed that detail the most. Then there werer also schedules for Radio 1, Radio 2, Five Live, 6Music, Classic FM, TalkSport, 1Xtra, Asian Network, Absolute Radio, BBC London, Xfm, Capital Radio (these latter in my London edition) and the World Service. A total of 16 services.
Today’s edition carries just Radio 3 and Radio 4. That’s your lot. The detail for these is about the same as before, but of the other 14 services, there’s no coverage.
This comes at a time when more people are listening to the radio than ever before. And a quick run of the figures shows that of people who “almost always” read The Guardian, 165,000 are Radio 1 listeners, 282,000 are Radio 2 listeners, 224,000 are Five Live listeners, 53,000 are 6Music listeners, 75,000 are Radio 7 listeners, 191,000 are Classic FM listeners, 38,000 are Absolute Radio listeners and 33,000 are Talksport listeners. That’s a lot of readers who are no longer served (Source: RAJAR Q1 2009).
I’m sure that The Guardian would point you in the direction of The Guide and say there’s more coverage in its Saturday listings supplement, but that wasn’t as detailed as we used to get.
In fairness I should say that the loss isn’t just radio’s. Many digital TVservices have lost their listings too. Gone are all the TV sports channels listings (seemingly a subject so popular it deserves a daily section, but not any listings info), Comedy Central, Sky Movies Premiere, Sky Movies Indie, Sky Movies Drama, Sky Movies Comedy, Sky Movies Action Thriller, Hallmark, and GOLD. There’s also no longer a daily film pick selection – perhaps unsurprising since so many film channels are no longer included.
I suspect that overall page saved is something to do with decreasing revenues and expensive newsprint, but I’m sure those savings could come from elsewhere.
[Disclaimer: Yes, I work for a commercial radio station, Absolute Radio, but I’m writing in my personal capacity here]