Guardian owner to sell Observer to Tortoise for £25 million investment

THE UK’s Guardian Media Group has agreed to sell the Observer, the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, to online news startup Tortoise Media.

Tortoise agreed to invest £25 million (S$42.7 million) in the British title over the next five years and has pledged to keep publishing the print edition of the approximately 230-year-old paper, according to an emailed statement from the Guardian Media Group and its owner, the Scott Trust, on Friday.

Under the terms of the deal, the Scott Trust will become a key shareholder in Tortoise Media and will take a seat on both its editorial and commercial boards, according to the statement. The deal is expected to be signed “in the coming days.”

The announcement follows two days of strikes by unionised journalists at the Guardian and its sister publication the Observer over the proposed sale. Opponents to the deal wanted the Trust to consider alternative proposals, including one led by Dale Vince, the owner of green energy company Ecotricity. 

Established British publications, sometimes more than a century old, hold value beyond subscriptions and are seen as politically influential assets in the UK.

The Observer is typically viewed as sympathetic to the Labour Party, which returned to power in July after 14 years in opposition. Tortoise Media committed to safeguard “editorial independence of the Observer, undertaking to honour the liberal values and journalistic standards” of the Scott Trust, according to the statement. BLOOMBERG