'Guardian' journalists strike to protest sale of sister paper 'Observer'

Nearly 500 journalists are on strike at the Guardian and its sister paper, the Sunday-only Observer, to protest the planned sale of the Observer to a small digital startup.

"We believe it's a total betrayal of the Guardian's values and promises that it's made," says Carole Cadwalladr, an investigative reporter and feature writer for the Observer. "The sale of the Observer to a loss-making startup is potentially the death of this historic brand."

The strike, which starts Wednesday, is expected to last for two days this week and restart for a couple more days next week. Cadwalldr says the strike is intended to convince the Observer's owner to slow down a process that the paper's union says is sprinting to a preordained conclusion. She says colleagues believe other suitors could emerge if further review shows the Guardian should divest itself of the Sunday paper.

The Observer is a storied liberal title whose first issue came out on this date in 1791. It is believed to be the world's oldest Sunday paper. Its famous journalists include George Orwell. And it was central to the launch of the human rights group Amnesty International.

The buyer is Tortoise Media, a well-regarded but small news outlet founded in 2019 and led by James Harding, the former director of BBC News and editor of The Times of London. Its tagline is "slow down, wise up." It promises to delve into what's driving the news rather than simply post the latest headlines.

It has not yet turned a profit but has deep-pocketed backers, including the investment arm of the Thomson family that controls Reuters and owns the Globe and Mail newspaper in Canada.

The papers, which together make up the Guardian Media Group, are owned by the Scott Trust, which operates like a U.S. nonprofit. The trust is worth about $1.65 billion. Its investments generate revenues that help guarantee the solvency of the Guardian over time.

In a joint statement, six past top editors of the Observer have denounced the move, both for the decision and the way it was reached.

"The cause of liberal journalism is a fragile one, in Britain and beyond," the joint letter to the Scott Trust's board read. "We urge that the Scott Trust should act with a great sense of its duty of stewardship towards a title which has such a magnificent and storied history."

The Guardian Media Group acquired the Observer in 1993; the work of its 70-plus journalists is posted on the free Guardian website and appears in the print edition of the Observer, which is distributed in the U.K.

"We are grateful for the Trust's 30-year stewardship, which has allowed the title to continue," the statement from the former editors continued. "We see no crisis that could possibly justify a rushed sale. It is a gamble, a throw of the dice, for a title which started publishing in 1791."

The editors, including Paul Webster, who retired earlier this autumn, said the Trust's mission to protect the Guardian's journalism encompasses the Observer as well.

Company executives declined to comment for this article. The Scott Trust's board and the newspaper's leadership, however, have suggested in communications with its staffers that the Observer's status might not be secure even in the absence of a sale. The company says the paper will be in the red within a few years.

In a note to staffers obtained by NPR, Guardian Media Group CEO Anna Bateson wrote that the Scott Trust had not shopped the Observer around but was approached by Tortoise.

"We were already beginning to think about the future of the title, given its financial situation and the fact it is a U.K.-only, Sunday print newspaper," Bateson wrote. "It became clear that this was a serious offer that could create a more sustainable business strategy for the Observer." Tortoise has pledged to invest in a fresh digital site for the Observer and to develop podcasts, newsletters and events around it.

Union employees objected to the proposed plans as details surfaced this fall. Bateman announced that some Observer staffers who did not wish to work for Tortoise could take voluntary buyouts and that others could apply for available vacancies within the Guardian. 

Finally, Scott Trust Chairman Ole Jacob Sunde pledged that any deal to sell the paper would include provisions ensuring the trust retain a partial stake in the Observer and that it have a role in the boards setting Tortoise's commercial and editorial strategies.

The Guardian Media Group leadership has been rewarded for the faith it placed on a digital future. More than a third of its revenues — and more than half of its digital revenues — derive from outside the U.K., according to the Trust's most recent annual report. Guardian Australia recently marked its 10th anniversary; the paper embarked on an expansion of its American presence, and in September it launched Guardian Europe.

In late October, Washington Post owner and billionaire Jeff Bezos decided to kill an editorial endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris. More than 250,000 people canceled their digital subscriptions to the Post. The left-leaning Guardian made an explicit appeal to readers for donations.

"It has never been clearer that media ownership matters to democracy. The Guardian is not billionaire-owned, nor do we have shareholders," Guardian US Editor Betsy Reed wrote. "Nobody influences our journalism. We are fiercely independent and accountable only to you, our readers."

According to a Guardian spokesperson, it has raised more than $9.7 million from U.S. readers in the weeks since.

Disclosure: NPR Board Member Matthew Barzun is the co-founder and chairman of Tortoise Media. This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

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