Guardian in Meltdown as Staff Accuse Bosses of Untruths Over Observer Sale
After the approval by the Scott Trust – which owns the Guardian Media Group – of the sale of the Observer to James Harding’s Tortoise Media last week nerves are far from calming. 125 Guardian and Observer staff have penned a letter – published on the Guardian website – accusing Scott Trust chairman Ole Jacob Sunde of being far from accurate in his claim that the sale of the paper was agreed only after “extensive internal and external consultation.” The staff were having none of it:
“There were no conversations with Observer staff prior to a decision to explore selling the Observer. Observer journalists have not been involved in due diligence relating to the transfer. Several Scott Trust directors have refused to speak to senior Observer staff, including the editor, or simply ignored our approaches. The deal was approved while journalists were on strike… Key questions have been left unanswered. We were told that the rationale for the transfer is that the Scott Trust would never invest in the Observer; why, then, has £5m been found to underwrite Tortoise in exchange for a less-than 10% stake of this company?
Guardian hacks note that putting the Observer behind a paywall would mean the site would only be “accessed by a tiny fraction of that readership.” Striking hasn’t done the job – are principled resignations on the way?