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The Guardian Media Group is in talks to sell the Observer, the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, to online start-up Tortoise Media.
In a memo to staff on Tuesday, the GMG said it was in negotiations after being approached by Tortoise with an offer for the 233-year-old title.
The terms were not disclosed, but Observer staff were told it would include a significant investment and would safeguard the paper’s future, which is the sister title to the Guardian.
In a statement, Tortoise said it would invest more than £25mn over the next five years, and committed to continuing to publish the Observer on a Sunday.
Anna Bateson, GMG chief executive, said a sale would “provide a chance to build the Observer’s future position with a significant investment and allow the Guardian to focus on its growth strategy to be more global, more digital and more reader-funded”.
Tortoise was launched in 2019 by James Harding, former BBC news director and editor of The Times newspaper, and Matthew Barzun, former US ambassador to the UK.
The sale talks came as GMG reported that its annual revenues for the 12 months to the end of March dipped to £257.8mn.
