Yesterday morning Guardian Media Group (GMG), the publisher of the Guardian and The Observer newspapers, announced its fiscal year financials for the 12-month period ending April 3, 2016. Group revenue and group digital revenue were both down, year-over-year, and the company reported a pre-tax loss of £68.7 million, compared to a £14.7 million loss last year. Despite GMG’s abysmal results, the company issued an upbeat press release focusing on the year’s high notes, including:

• 155 million unique monthly visitors in April 2016 (compared to 129 million year-over-year)
• 5.3 million downloads of the Guardian’s app for iOS and Android
• Record online traffic for Guardian US in June: 42 million unique monthly visitors, according to ComScore, a 33 percent increase year-over-year
• 73 percent increase in mobile readership
• 55 percent growth in millennial (18-34 year olds) readership

Neil Berkett, chair of GMG, tried to put a forward-looking spin on the year-end results.

“These full-year financial results show the challenging market conditions in which all news organizations are now operating. Under the leadership of Katharine and David the group has committed to a three-year business plan which will address those challenges head on, addressing costs whilst growing new revenues in order to protect Guardian journalism in perpetuity,” Berkett said.

Berkett is referring to the three-year plan implemented earlier this year that hopes to increase revenue by deepening reader relationships, align advertising business with growth in the market, cut costs, and break even by 2018-19.  Editor-in-chief Katharine Viner and CEO David Pemsel are responsible for implementing the plan and turning things around for GMG.

Pemsel added, “Faced with a volatile advertising market, we have taken decisive action to control our cost base, reduce headcount, and grow our revenues around membership, branded content, video and data. We are on track to deliver a 20 percent reduction in our cost base over the next three years, while our unique ownership structure will allow us to continue to invest in the world-class journalism that these numbers clearly show our international audiences want. We have a hugely talented workforce and a strong global brand with well-established core values and we remain committed to achieving financial and editorial sustainability through our three-year business plan.”

In related news, Media Post’s Sara Guaglione reports that the Guardian is cutting its weekly print coverage from two pages down to one. A Guardian spokesman told Business Insider that reducing the Monday print media section to one page is among the cost-cutting measures. Though its digital traffic is growing, the Guardian is the lowest-selling U.K. national newspaper with average daily sales of 172,000, reports Media Post.

Cost cutting measures will also include editorial centralization which will mean staffing cuts. When the plan was originally announced, an estimated 250 jobs were expected to be cut, but that number grew to 270 as the pressure to reduce costs increased.

In an effort to generate revenue and reduce seemingly insurmountable losses, the Guardian is turning to ad targeting on trending stories, says Digiday. According to Digiday, the Guardian uses an auction-based tool called Pulse that will identify popular stories getting 300 or more views per minute and then serve those stories with targeted display ads.

Ad prices will be based on demand, but the Guardian has set rate floors. Digiday says Guardian is just launching this product, so it doesn’t have any advertisers yet, but it is planning on pitching the idea to prospects in the near future.

Insider Take:

The Guardian, like many print-based organizations, has been struggling for the last few years with declining print sales and print advertising revenue, but the Guardian’s attempts including a website revamp and implementing a membership model instead of a paywall have not yielded results sufficient to stop the company’s financial descent. While the website revamp and Guardian’s content seem to be attracting readers, its other attempts to grow revenue have not been as successful. The Guardian is reworking its membership options and abandoning its plans to turn the Midlands Goods shed into an event venue.

It seems like the Guardian is trying to stop a speeding train. In recent years, it has tried different strategies including revamping its website and implementing a membership model to grow revenue and stem losses, but nothing seems to be able to stop that train. GMG has about two-and-a-half years left of its three-year plan, but it needs to see some big results soon or the company’s leaders might find themselves looking for jobs too.