The sale of the Observer to Tortoise Media will go ahead, staff have been told. Hours after a 48-hour strike by journalists across the Observer and Guardian ended, staff were invited to a meeting to be told of the intended deal.
In advance of the meeting an email was sent to staff that said: “Earlier this week, I set out the criteria the Trust has been taking into account to reach a decision. I believe they have now been met. With that in mind, we have now in principle approved the sale of the Observer to Tortoise Media.”
The email was signed by the Scott Trust chair Ole Jacob Sunde, the Guardian Media Group (GMG) chair Charles Gurassa and chief executive Anna Bateson, and the Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner.
The Scott Trust, which sits on a £1.3bn fund and oversees the GMG (which in turn runs the 233-year-old Observer), has attempted to allay concerns of staff who fear for the future of the title – and their jobs – in the hands of loss-making Tortoise.
As a result, assurances have been made that the Scott Trust will invest in Tortoise Media and become one of its largest shareholders. It will also have a role on the Tortoise Media editorial and commercial boards. Other principles of the deal are that the Observer will have secure, long-term funding and that its owners will “embody the values of editorial independence, press freedoms and liberal journalism”.
The staff email also announced there would be a £25m investment in the Observer, with a long-term commitment to a print product and digital growth plan. It also offered support for staff impacted by the decision. It is expected the deal will be confirmed in coming days, although some staff are to be taking advice on whether a legal challenge may be possible.
Many journalists – dozens of whom joined a picket line outside the Guardian and Observer’s head office in London’s King’s Cross on Wednesday and Thursday – reacted with fury to the news.
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One said: “This will rip up Britain’s only liberal media group. And why? So James Harding gets the chance to run an established newspaper for a while.” James Harding, who founded Tortoise Media, is a former Times editor and director of news at the BBC.
“There has been no consultation with staff – just the chance for us to ask a few questions and that was it. They have been committed to doing this from the start, regardless of what staff thought.”
Another Observer staff member said: “This is a massive slap in the face to everyone on the Observer and Guardian. While we were out on strike just weeks before Christmas, they were plowing ahead with the sale regardless of our concerns about protecting liberal journalism at a time it is needed more than ever. Morale could not be lower.”
Much of the staff’s concern centres around why Tortoise Media has been chosen as a partner. Tortoise generated revenue of £6.2m in 2022, with pre-tax losses of £4.6m; losses over the three years to that point totalled £16m.
But other staff are more sanguine. One said: “It is crystal clear the Guardian doesn’t want the Observer any more, so at least we will be somewhere where we are wanted and with the investment we need to transform digitally. The big concern is a lot of the skills some staff have may no longer be required in the new world.”
There are also challenges around decoupling the Observer from the Guardian: the two titles share foreign, business and sports coverage, and some production functions.
Harding said Tortoise was: “Honoured and excited at the prospect of working together to renew the Observer, a name that represents the best of liberal, pioneering journalism.”
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