Showing 20 results

File 1:
Contains correspondence and reports relating to the formulation and review of the 1983/4 Observer budget. Includes: memorandums relating to departmental overspending and re-forecasting including a draft proposal for production economies (April 1984); monthly and year end marketing promotional budget statements; financial projection for the year ending 30 September 1984; annotated draft Observer budgets for 1983/4 from September and August1983; Management Committee Review Meeting papers (July 1983); budget review task list with initials of responsible individuals (July 1983); bound, annotated copy of the advertisement department revenue budget for 1983/4; profit and loss accounts for the financial year 1983/4 and a report on financial results for the year ending 30 September 1984.

Primary Correspondents include: Jennie Beck, Brian S Blelloch, David Bishop, William Millinship and Roger Harrison.

File 2:
Includes: Memorandums relating to the formulation of the the Observer budget for 1983/1984, including comments on the potential profitability of a paper for young readers; budget schedules and summaries, circulation figures and other papers for discussion at budget review meetings and a bound copy of the 1983/4 budget submitted to the Board on 6 September 1983. This file includes information relating to individuals' salaries.

Primary Correspondents include: David Bishop and Roger Harrison.
Creator: The Observer Limited; Managing Director's Office; Roger Harrison

Contains correspondence and reports relating to the formulation and review of the 1984/5 Observer budget. Includes an annotated bound copy of the budget produced in July1984 and two copies of the revised budget from Jan 1985; figures and cost centre reports relating to the preparation and review of the budget, including a printed summary of weekly statistics for May 1985; correspondence about adverse variances in spending for the previous and current budget years and about cost cutting needed to make the newspaper viable and how best to achieve it.

Primary Correspondents include: Brian S Blelloch, David Bishop, William Millinship and Roger Harrison.
Creator: The Observer Limited; Managing Director's Office; Roger Harrison

Contains correspondence and reports relating to the formulation and review of the 1985/6 Observer budget. Includes: timetables, agreed assumptions and cost centre information used to put together the budget; forecast, spending, including capital expenditure (including the planned purchase of an Amstrad computer), and draft budget figures; memorandums relating to overspends (including libel costs) and to planned and effected cost savings; trading results for the first quarter of 1985/6 and memorandums relating to inserts provison and costs and redundancy provision.

Also includes: a bound copy of the display advertising department budget for 1985/6 and 3 draft copies of the full budget from August and September 1985 (including the copies sent to Lonrho and to the Board for approval).

Primary Correspondents include: Roger Harrison, John Nuttall-Smith, David Bishop, Nick Morrell, Brian S Blelloch and William Millinship.
Creator: The Observer Limited; Managing Director's Office; Roger Harrison

Contains correspondence and figures relating to the formulation of the 1986/7 Observer budget. Blank forms for cost centre managers; schedules comparing the current budget with projected, and later actual, costs for 1985/6 and actual costs for the preceding years; memorandums relating to budget assumptions, printing costs, budget cuts and staffing costs particularly in relation to magazine spending, opinion polls costs in relation to the expected election, a planned office move to Battersea; figures showing the editorial cost per column for the year ended 30 September 1986 and a letter from the Lonrho board approving the submitted budget (October 1986).

Primary Correspondents include: John Nuttall-Smith, David Bishop, Roger Harrison and Jean Atkinson
Creator: The Observer Limited; Managing Director's Office; Roger Harrison

Records relating to the purchase, replacement, repair, insurance and parking of company cars, and the expenses involved. Includes sets of figures showing the expenditure limits for different staff bands and other budget information relating to staff vehicles.

Primary Correspondents include: Roger Harrsion,David Bishop, Donald Trelford, Nicholas Morrell, Ron Holmes, Brian Nicholson, John Steel and Joan Scarsbrook.
Creator: The Observer Limited; Managing Director's Office; Roger Harrison

Contains correspondence and reports relating to the Observer's financial accounts. Includes memorandums and sets of figures relating to salary increases; projected and actual overspends against budget (1976); auditing, including the Lonrho internal audit (1985); economies, budget control and raising the cover price; insurance; trading performance; capital expenditure including the 1980 procedure for ordering capital equipment; staffing costs; a new purchasing and ordering procedure (1978); employers liability accident claims 1978; expenses accounts including expense policy for 1983; the advertisement account system (1979); checklist for carrying out investigations into companies the Observer may be interested in acquiring (1979); company loans; draft Observer Accounts manual (1981);complaints about the payments section of the Observer accounts department; cheque signatories and authorisation procedures; loss of profits caused by the SOGAT/NGA dispute in 1983; new year's day publishing costs; company credit cards; payroll robbery (1984-1985); photographers losses in Brixton riots (1985); ready reakoners for the second quarter of 1985/1986 and for 1986/1987. The file includes references to Observer Holdings Ltd (later Lockhold); Observer Partners and the US offices of the Observer newspaper.

The first part of this file (up to 1979) consists almost exclusively of memorandums sent from Roger Harrison to John Steel. Later primary correspondents include: Brian Nicholson, John Nuttall-Smith, David Bishop, Ron Holmes, Brian Blelloch and William Millinship.
Creator: The Observer Limited; Managing Director's Office; Roger Harrison

Contains correspondence relating to capital expenditure on machinery and materials and production staffing costs (including overtime payments); figures showing actual and projected spending calculations and memorandums relating to holiday printing costs and machine room maintenance. Correspondence is dated 1976-1982, but production costs figures are included going back to 1972.

Primary correspondents include: Roger Harrison, Jimmy Cox, Ron Holmes, Ron Frost and John Steel.
Creator: The Observer Limited; Managing Director's Office; Roger Harrison

Contains correspondence relating to the Observer group's actual and expected financial performance during the early 1980s.Correspondence is dated 1982-1985, but figures are included going back to 1981. Includes figures and financial reports showing: the group's overdraft position; profit and loss accounts; sales forecasts; production and editorial costs forecasts; overheads; cash flow forecasts and actual figures plotted on monthly and yearly graphs; budget overspends; and the analysis of revenue and of expenditure (by cost centre), along with related memorandums.

Primary correspondents include: Ray Brazell, David Bishop, Brian Blelloch, Roger Harrison and Nicholas Morrell.
Creator: The Observer Limited; Managing Director's Office; Roger Harrison

This file contains sets of figures showing: actual and projected financial results for 1986 (including cash flow and profit and loss accounts) and comparative reviews showing actual and projected trading figures for the years 1976-1988.

Also includes a memorandum to the Executive Committee from David Bishop (March 1986) relating to the financial projection for 1985/6.
Creator: The Observer Limited; Managing Director's Office; Roger Harrison

This files contains correspondence with advertising clients relating to the Observer's debt collecting processes, chiefly in relation to the operations of Inter-Credit International Ltd. and internal memorandums received and sent by Harrison relating to debt collection, overdue advertising accounts and the shortfalls and computerisation of the advertising bookings system.

Also includes: newspaper overdue lists and the minutes of a meeting held to review the advertising bookings system in 1982.
Creator: The Observer Limited; Managing Director's Office; Roger Harrison