Paul Webster

Who is 'the money behind the money?' As the Guardian announces the 'sale' of the 233-year-old Observer to Tortoise Media, I wave hello to my new bosses (hi!) with an investigation of their finances.

Who is 'the money behind the money?'
open.substack.com/pub/broligar...

The Scott Trust, which is supposed to to promote ‘the causes of freedom of the press and liberal journalism in Britain and elsewhere’, has lost the confidence of the staff it represents. It no longer appears fit for purpose.

Instead, Trustees acted in the face of powerful opposition from the substantial majority of Guardian and Observer staff, defying four days of unprecedented strike action.

The secrecy that led to the sale has excluded any possibility that Observer journalists might have contributed to a discussion about their title's future, or that alternative, possibly better suited and financed, potential owners might be found.

Instead they promoted the preposterous notion that the Observer, which makes a positive contribution to revenues according to company figures, represents a threat to a company sitting on a £1.3bn fund.

The Trust has failed utterly to convince staff how taking the Observer behind a paywall, and losing the huge advantages that sharing resources with our sister title The Guardian, will help sustain liberal journalism, surely one of its cherished purposes.

The deal is mystifying. No price has been given, instead the Trust is paying Tortoise Media to take The Observer off its hands, and in so doing to create a digital competitor.

The Trust claims the Observer was facing an existential crisis. But they failed to raise this once with me during my 6-year editorship which ended last month. And when I asked to address the Trust to make the case opposing the deal, the chair refused.

The paper is being hustled out of the door after a furtive and largely secret negotiation into a very uncertain future in the hands of a loss-making start-up.

The announcement of the sale of The Observer to Tortoise Media is a grim end to a shaming episode for the Scott Trust.🧵

Why foreign correspondents are alarmed and dismayed at plans to sell the Observer | Letter Letter: Current and former contributors to the international pages of the Guardian and Observer respond to an article by Ole Jacob Sunde, chair of the Scott Trust

www.theguardian.com/media/2024/d...
Why some of the finest international correspondents in the media are so angry about the deal to sell the Observer

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Observer posts £3m profit ahead of potential sale to loss-making start-up Sunday title outstrips forecasts despite claims it must be offloaded to protect the Guardian

Telegraph reports that the Observer made £3.4m last year, according to internal figures. An interesting new fact www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...