LONDON, Sept 17 (Askume) – Britain’s Guardian Media Group (GMG) is in exclusive talks to sell The Observer, the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, to start-up Tortoise Media, the companies said on Tuesday.
Tortoise said the talks included a commitment to invest more than £25 million ($33 million) over the next five years in editorial and commercial updates to the title.
First published in 1791, the centre-left Observer is one of Britain’s best-known newspapers, featuring news coverage by George Orwell. After being acquired by GMG in 1993, it became a sister paper to The Guardian.
GMG chief executive Anna Bateson said in a statement: “This will provide the Observer with an opportunity to position itself for the future through significant investment and will help the Guardian focus on its growth strategy to become more global and more digital. ‘Get more readers’ – funding.”
Tortoise was founded in 2019 by former Times and BBC News executive James Harding.
Harding said, “We believe The Observer is one of the most renowned magazines in journalism. We are confident about its future – both in print and digital.”
Like the rest of the newspaper industry, the Observer’s print sales have declined. Before GMG stopped publishing ABC sales figures, its 2021 circulation was 136,656 copies.
Its online content is closely integrated with that of The Guardian.
Tortoise said it will continue to publish The Observer on Sunday and will create a digital Observer that will be integrated with Tortoise’s podcasts, newsletters and live events.
“Like its many loyal readers, we admire the strength and heart of the Observer’s reporting, we value its original, irreverent views and we love its passions: food, music, film and the arts,” Harding said.
He said: “George Orwell described the Observer as ‘the enemy of nonsense’; we’re delighted to show new and old readers that it is still nonsense.”
GMG’s results for the financial year 2023-24, released on Tuesday, saw pressure from a slowdown in advertising and a long-term decline in print.
The company said total revenue fell 2.5% to 257.8 million pounds ($340.6 million) and adjusted cash outflow rose to 36.5 million pounds from 17.3 million pounds a year earlier.
It turns out the company is owned by the Scott Trust, which is worth £1.275 billion.
($1 = 0.7569 British pounds)
