Guardian urged to ‘press pause’ on Observer sale as more strikes planned

The head of the UK’s union movement has weighed in on the backlash over the sale of The Observer newspaper, urging its owner to “press pause” on the controversial transaction amid staff uproar ahead of more planned strikes next.

Trade Union Congress general-secretary Paul Nowak joined the condemnation from the National Union of Journalists on Friday, which led a staff strike in the lead-up to the planned sale by Guardian Media Group and the Scott Trust of the Sunday newspaper to start-up Tortoise Media.

“The Observer is the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper and is a vital part of our media landscape,” Mr Nowak said in a statement to The Independent.

“It is very disappointing that Guardian Media Group and Scott’s Trust are fast-tracking this sale - despite widespread opposition from loyal staff. We urge Guardian Media Group and the Scott’s Trust to press pause and to listen to its workers. It’s the very least they deserve.”

Staff have raised fears about the sustainability of the outlet under new ownership, including discussions on putting in a paywall, which the NUJ said those against the merger believed would mute a “unique voice in Britain’s national conversation”.

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Tortoise Media was launched in 2018 by former BBC executive and Times editor James Harding and Matthew Barzun, a former US ambassador.

The start-up, which specialises in what it calls “slow news”, said it has committed to safeguard journalistic freedom and the editorial independence of The Observer, undertaking to honour the “liberal values and journalistic standards” of the Scott Trust in its editorial code.

The two days of strikes this week were supported by a number of politicians and well-known cultural figures including Grayson Perry, Lemn Sissay, Anne Robinson, Michael Rosen and Stewart Lee, and backed by messages of support from stars including Tilda Swinton, Maxine Peake and Armando Iannucci.

In a statement released after 5pm on Friday, members of the Guardian and Observer NUJ chapel said they were “outraged to wake up to news this morning that members of the Scott Trust had chosen to approve the deal while our action was taking place.”

“The decision to move ahead with the deal, in principle, underlined their refusal to take on board the well-founded objections and strength of opposition from journalists and readers,” the chapel said in a statement.

However, Anna Bateson, chief executive of Guardian Media Group, assured staff the sale would protect the paper’s future, “ensuring it can continue producing exceptional liberal journalism, online and in print, for years to come.”

Mr Harding, editor and founder of Tortoise, said: “We are honoured and excited at the prospect of working together to renew The Observer, a name that represents the best of liberal, pioneering journalism.

“We admire its temperament, both tolerant and humane. We love its appetite for the arts and, of course, food. We promise its readers we will do all we can to live up to its history as a defender of human dignity and to give it a new lease of life as a powerful, progressive voice in the world.”