Jay Rayner, one of The Observer’s most prominent writers, is leaving the newsbrand as controversy surrounds its proposed sale to Tortoise Media.
The news was announced on the same day that Paul Webster, who was editor of The Observer until earlier this month, wrote a lengthy denunciation of the proposed sale, which he said was based on “two false premises”: that the newspaper’s operation poses a financial risk to The Guardian and that Tortoise Media could sustain the brand in print.
A Guardian and Observer staff strike over the proposed sale is set for early next month.
Rayner, who has reviewed restaurants for The Observer for 25 years, said last month that he had been shortlisted for columnist of the year in the BSME Awards “in the same month that The Guardian has told me they will terminate all our contracts if they can sell The Observer to Tortoise”.
Tortoise and Guardian News and Media have previously assured Observer staff that their jobs will be safe if the sale goes ahead.
A spokesperson for Tortoise told Press Gazette contract arrangements like Rayner’s would also be honoured in any deal.
Rayner was previously a vocal campaigner against an unsuccessful bid to merge The Observer into The Guardian in 2008.
A spokesperson for Guardian News and Media said: “Jay Rayner has entertained readers for many years with his writing and we wish him all the best with his new role.”
On Thursday, Webster, who edited The Observer for six years and was its deputy editor for 22 years, spoke out about the proposed Tortoise deal for the first time.
He wrote on Twitter: “Here’s why I think the proposed sale of the Observer to Tortoise would severely damage the reputation of the Scott Trust and threaten the future of the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, which I edited until last weekend.
“This planned sale, if ratified by the Trust, would be a discreditable conclusion to a damaging episode in the company’s history.
“It is based on two false premises. One, that the Observer represents a serious threat to the security and future of the Guardian because of its financial position.
“This is preposterous. As editor for the past 6 years, I was provided with revenue and expenditure data.
“They showed that despite the well-documented decline of print sales, The Observer has continued to make a net contribution of several millions of pounds to the company’s finances.
“Even once added expenses are included, as they have been in the company’s recent shameful attempt to bundle the paper out of the door as quickly as possible, and account is taken of shared resources we use, the losses are miniscule set against the company’s £1.3bn cash pile.
“And they fail to take any account of mitigating strategies we might have discussed, but which the Trust entirely failed to consider during my tenure, or of the considerable contribution Observer journalism makes to the Guardian website’s breadth of coverage and income.
“The second false premise is that Tortoise Media, a small historically loss making start up, is able to sustain the Observer as a serious competitor on Sunday newstands.
“Based on the little information Observer journalists have been provided with it does not have the resources to shoulder the cost of sustaining a standalone Sunday paper with a comprehensive news, foreign, sports, business and cultural coverage able to compete with our rivals.
“Nor are its projections of subscription sales realistic, and uncertainty clouds the scale and future of its funding.
“The Scott Trust boasts a proud record of defending liberal journalism, as represented by both the Guardian AND the Observer. It appears as if it’s about to betray that record by essentially gifting the Observer to a small, historically loss-making start-up.
“If its losses are severe enough to warrant abandoning the Observer then it is doubtful that Tortoise has the means to sustain the title. If they are not, then the Trust, with a £1.3bn endowment, is a far better home for the Observer.
“The Guardian persistently boasts that it’s not owned by a proprietor. But – by excluding its own journalists from the process of the sale – it has behaved as if it is.
“As a senior journalist on the Guardian and Observer for 35 years, I believe the Scott Trust should reject this deal and embark on a proper review of the Observer’s future if it is to uphold its clearly enunciated role as a defender of liberal journalism at home and abroad.”
Financial Times to expand weekend food and drink coverage
The Financial Times poached Rayner amid an expansion of its weekend food and drink coverage.
The business paper has also hired former Sunday Times restaurant critic and current Noble Rot contributing editor Marina O’Loughlin for a monthly FT Magazine column about the global restaurant scene and food culture.
The FT’s current restaurant critic, Tim Hayward, moves to a new role as a food writer, “contributing deep-dives on home cooking projects and other culinary fixations”.
Rayner said: “I have been both an avid fan and devoted reader of the paper for many years and it’s an honour to become part of a team I have admired from afar for so long.
“I can’t wait to play my part alongside the huge talents that are Jancis Robinson, Tim Hayward and Marina O’Loughlin, in providing the most entertaining and authoritative food and drink coverage in the business.”
Hayward said: “Twelve years is a long time to be critical about restaurants. I’m looking forward to being able to write fully about the thing I love, enthusing about food, in breadth and depth.”
And O’Loughlin said that, “after leaving the Sunday Times, I’ve made a hobby of saying ‘no’ to offers.
“So it’s with enormous pleasure that I’m now saying ‘yes’ to my favourite of all the major newspapers, with the best food and drink section in the business.”
Janine Gibson, editor of FT Weekend, said: “The FT Magazine’s food and drink coverage under its brilliant editor Harriet Fitch Little has gone from strength to strength.
“We have ambitious and exciting plans for the next year and assembling this stellar lineup of the greatest authorities in their field is the first step.
“FT Weekend readers look to us for expertise and exceptional writing on every aspect of culture, and this food and drink team will be unparalleled in their ability to deliver on every front.”
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