Guardian and Observer journalists began their first strike action in 50 years on Wednesday morning with a picket outside their London King’s Cross headquarters.
More than 500 walked out for 48 hours from midnight on Wednesday 4 December, with a second two days of strike action planned for next Thursday to Friday (12-13 December), in protest at the plan to sell The Observer to Tortoise Media and the speed with which it is moving forward.
Staff want alternatives to be fully considered with rival bidders, including businessman Dale Vince, emerging since Tortoise Media entered an exclusivity period with Guardian Media Group.
More than 100 people had gathered on the picket line by 10am with banners stating: “Save The Observer: Better read than dead” and “Support the strike.”
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Chants included: “Ho hey, ho hey, The Observer’s got to stay”, “Observer! Observer! James Harding don’t deserve her!”, and “Keep your Tortoise off our grass.” Harding is the founder and largest shareholder of Tortoise.
Staff handed out cupcakes to mark The Observer’s 233rd birthday, which was also on Wednesday.
High-profile Guardian/Observer contributors and supporters seen on the picket line included: agony aunt Philippa Perry and her husband Grayson Perry (the artist), comedian Stewart Lee, author Michael Rosen, RMT union boss Mick Lynch, Labour MPs Clive Lewis, Andrew Pakes and Paul Waugh, independent MP Rebecca Long-Bailey, and ex-shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire.
Guardian and Observer journalists ‘are feeling really gaslit right now’
Observer and Guardian journalists with whom Press Gazette spoke felt they should have been given more of a say in plans for The Observer.
One Observer journalist (who asked not to be named) said: “The rationale seems to be that they’re worried that The Observer might lose money in the future — well, why then hasn’t there been some sort of strategic review, a conversation, with journalists? We’ve got lots of ideas about how Observer journalism can be made to work harder financially for the group, but no one wants to talk to us about it.
“That’s why we’re on strike, because we feel we’ve been treated with contempt by our managers and by our owners, and that there’s been no engagement with journalists on this.”
Referring to a proposed arrangement that would see Guardian Media Group take a stake in Tortoise, the journalist said: “If they’re going to be putting money into Tortoise, why wouldn’t they invest in The Observer in-house, without all the diseconomies of scale that come from trying to extract a Sunday newspaper that is so integrated with Guardian journalism?…
“To me, that says they want this deal to go through at any cost, reputationally, because they’re people who are so attached to it that they can’t take a step back and say: ‘What’s best here?’”
They also questioned the logic of the deal, saying: “You’re talking about a small digital start-up that’s only ever recorded losses to date. It doesn’t make sense. Why would it have the capacity or the resilience to run a standalone Sunday newspaper?”
A second journalist, similarly, said: “Print circulation is under pressure and there isn’t a separate digital presence [for The Observer] — I can see why they’re warning about the long-term future. But there’s no crisis right now, so I don’t understand the rush…
“Tortoise accounts are due in the next month — we’ll want to see those numbers. Maybe they’ve turned things around, but we don’t know. What’s the rush in doing the deal?”
Observer agony aunt Philippa Perry said Guardian and Observer staff were “feeling really gaslit right now” after it emerged parties besides Tortoise had raised the possibility of bidding for the Sunday paper.
“I can’t see what Tortoise would bring to The Observer to improve it,” she said, “and I don’t think it’s the best bid if they want to get rid of us. And why do they want to get rid of us? We’re part of the paper!”
Husband Grayson said he was there because “it’s important to have a wide spread of media outlets in the modern world”, but also “to support my wife, who writes for The Observer, and I have to do everything she says”.
Guardian feature writer Simon Hattenstone: ‘We’re united as one happy family’
Guardian journalist Simon Hattenstone told Press Gazette he was striking “to save The Observer” which he felt the Tortoise deal is “incredibly unlikely” to do.
“It’s a very strange situation where you’ve got the whole country and the whole of the country’s media saying a deal is nonsense, ranging from, you know, The Independent to the Mail, and when the Mail is telling us it’s a nonsense deal, we know we have to listen.”
Hattenstone pointed to the £1.3bn Scott Trust endowment fund and said that as a result “we’ve never been so financially secure. So they should be celebrating our security, rather than selling off part of us.”
He added that an argument for the deal is that The Observer has “never really been part” of The Guardian, but noted that “we’re united as one happy family” on the picket line.
“And also the reality is that lots of Observer journalists work for The Guardian, lots of Guardian journalists work for The Observer. All the Observer editors except one early on, since we took over 31 years ago, was a former Guardian journalist. Could you imagine if you’re a family of 31 years and then the boss of the family suddenly says ‘nah mate, you never belonged to us. Go off to this start-up, they’ll look after you’.”
Hattenstone added: “We feel The Scott Trust’s sole job is to ensure the future of our journalism, Guardian and Observer journalism and liberal journalism, and that is by looking at the endowment, seeing when we need investment, seeing when we need support, and it’s turned away from that.”
Hattenstone said staff are “open to suggestion” about how to preserve The Observer but “my thinking is it should stay within the Guardian family”.
He said they understand that “eventually papers will go, but what we think is that time hasn’t happened yet, and I don’t believe the Guardian management thought that otherwise they wouldn’t have had a five-year investment in print. They struck up a new five-year deal for the printing of The Observer a few months ago. So eventually we understand print will go… But then there’s a great future, because we’d invest more in digital.”
He added of the endowment fund: “We don’t want to spend it all. We don’t want the cash to go down. But we can spend enough to keep us going – and then if the paper did go there are other solutions. You can have discussions about turning it into the Guardian on Sunday. We’re open to that, but I would keep an Observer banner because we’re the oldest Sunday paper in the country.”
Of Tortoise Media and its founder James Harding, Hattenstone said: “It’s great that he started up Tortoise. He’s done some really good things with it, but they’re not in a position to run The Observer, I don’t believe. They’ve not got the resources… I do think a measure of how successful or unsuccessful they are is that the first thing they do is basically get rid of the Tortoise name and turn it into The Observer. Now that doesn’t give the Observer and Guardian people a vote of confidence.”
Celebrities on The Observer picket line warn of threat to freedom and diversity of the press
Guardian contributor and author Michael Rosen told Press Gazette he had concerns about the nature of the financing of the deal, saying it struck him as “one of those deals that I’m familiar with from the world of football” often involving “selling institutions over the heads of employees”.
He added that “the books aren’t open, which in itself is a problem. Why should these businesses be able to operate in the public sphere in these private, secretive ways? And so yes, I support the employees, my fellow journalists, columnists and contributors to the paper.”
Asked why he was out on the picket line, comedian and Observer contributor Stewart Lee said “the cakes”.
Upon reflection, he added: “I think what happened with The Washington Post is a real wake up call to the fact that you need newspapers to be accountable, to write what they want.
“And that’s going to become more and more important as you see oligarch billionaires like Elon Musk taking over the means by which information is disseminated.
“So there’s never been a more crucial time in our lifetimes to try to protect the independence of the press.”
What Guardian Media Group management and Tortoise Media are saying
A Guardian Media Group spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday: “We respect the right of NUJ members to strike and have initiated a plan to minimise the impact on staff and readers, continuing to publish online and in print.
“While we recognise the strength of feeling towards the potential changes proposed, our priority is to ensure the Observer’s journalism continues to have a leading role in the liberal media landscape.”
Tortoise Media has not commented directly on the strike but has today posted a new Q&A page on its website about the proposed deal.
It said it wants to “build an Observer fit for the 21st century” and “revive The Observer as a strong, independent voice in liberal journalism. We believe the paper has huge potential to produce agenda-setting, public interest journalism across the week. We’re excited about combining The Observer’s strengths with our own expertise in audio and digital investigations, to build a thriving 21st-century news business.”
The Q&A says Tortorise will invest £25m “most of it in the first two years – to establish The Observer as a successful print and digital business. Tortoise will give The Observer its own digital identity, with a focus on publishing less breaking news and more narrative investigations, eyewitness reporting and data journalism.
“We will put The Observer’s online content behind a paywall, following The Atlantic’s highly successful revival by adapting to today’s media environment. We believe in its future, both in digital and as a multi-section newspaper published each and every Sunday.”
Press Gazette understands that the £25m comprises £20m of new money and £5m which will come from future profits.
Tortoise said the money to fund the deal “is coming from a group of investors who share our values and our belief in The Observer. All Tortoise Media shareholders are listed on Companies House. Our new supporters include Standard Investments, a backer of media start-ups in the US, and This Day, Gary Lubner’s philanthropic foundation. All are in for the long term.
“Their backing is the first substantial new investment in a liberal news media company in the UK in decades. No investor will have a controlling stake.”
The Q&A added that there will be an editorial board “to ensure journalistic freedom and editorial independence” chaired by ex-Financial Times editor Richard Lambert.
Photos from the Guardian/Observer picket line on Wednesday 4 December:
Dozens of people on the picket line outside the Guardian HQ in London on Wednesday 4 December 2024. Picture: Press Gazette
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