London's The Guardian Newspaper Opens Coffee Shop

While The New York Times may have switched to the subscription model online to turn some profit, U.K. newspaper the Guardian is going a different route. According to The Commentator, the newspaper has decided to open up a coffee shop, named #GuardianCoffee (hashtag theirs, a perfect example of hashtag misuse).

The coffee shop, opened in Shoreditch, London, is reportedly a "single site operation which is both a coffee shop and a space for journalists to work in," the Commentator says. But of course, as we're in the age of digital media, the coffee shop is "data-driven," which means plenty of infographics and iPads built into the tables.

Reviews have not been good; Clive Martin at Vice called the vibe "sterile and deathly," noting, "While this was obviously an attempt at a 'hip coffee shop,' it was clearly designed to be the kind of place where BBC researchers can charge their phones before going to Café Oto." There are purportedly "tasteful wooden floors, tumblers full of brown sugar, and more flat screens than a Glaswegian CCTV monitoring station." Not really a place we would want to camp out while filing stories, especially with espressos costing some $3.79 (£2.50).