The owner of the Guardian has confirmed it is in talks to sell the Observer, the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, to Tortoise Media.
Tortoise has approached Guardian Media Group (GMG) with an offer to invest around £25m over the next five years on the “editorial and commercial renewal” of the Observer.
Tortoise was launched five years ago by James Harding, a former BBC News chief and a former editor of the Times newspaper.
The Guardian reported that the title will remain a seven-day-a-week digital operation regardless of the outcome of negotiations with Tortoise about the Observer.
Observer staff were told that the investment would “help to safeguard its future” as a standalone product.
GMG is not actively trying to sell the Observer, but it is examining the Tortoise proposal to see if it is viable.
Founded in 1791, the Observer is the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper.
Mr Harding, editor of Tortoise, said: “We believe passionately in its future – both in print and digital.”
He added: “George Orwell described the Observer as ‘the enemy of nonsense’. We’re excited to show readers, old and new, that it still is.”
Mr Orwell wrote for the newspaper during World War Two and afterwards up until 1948.
Another contributor was Kim Philby, the former MI6 officer and Soviet spy, who had been working for the Russians since the early 1930s.
Mr Harding launched Tortoise with the former US ambassador to the UK James Barzun. It has a brief to provide “slow news” – not chasing breaking stories but rather looking at what drives trends.
It publishes a news website, podcasts and runs live discussions called “Think-ins”.
The business made an operating loss of £4.6m in 2022, the latest year for which accounts are available, with a turnover of £6.2m.
Its financial backers include Woodbridge, the investment firm of the Thomson family which has a majority stake in the global media business Thomson Reuters.
It is also backed by the investment firms Lansdowne Partners and LocalGlobe.