The Guardian-owning Scott Trust appears to be pressing ahead with plans to sell The Observer to Tortoise Media.

The 12-person board of the Trust, which is a non-profit-making company, met on Monday 25 November to discuss a bid made by Tortoise Media to acquire The Observer.

Tortoise has funding of £20m to invest in turning the Observer into a standalone newspaper with a paywalled website.

Following yesterday’s all-day meeting of the Trust a spokesperson said: “Today the Scott Trust met to discuss the potential sale of the Observer and the proposed terms.

“Talks continue to progress and there are a few outstanding points. All parties will continue detailed discussions to ensure the proposed agreement is the best it can be for staff, readers and the future of liberal journalism.”

The Trust has said it may keep a stake in The Observer after its sale to Tortoise and the Financial Times has reported that it may also offer additional investment in the new Tortoise/Observer business.

The ongoing talks mean strike action in protest at the Observer-Tortoise deal is still set to go ahead with the first 48-hour strike from Guardian and Observer journalists set to take place on Wednesday 4 December.

The Scott Trust has been sent a series of questions about the Observer deal by a consortium of press freedom groups which has asked for written answers.

These include: “Why is the sale of The Observer being discussed only with one preferred bidder instead of through an open, transparent and fair process?”

And: “What is the Scott Trust’s responsibility if this [the Tortoise Media] plan fails?”

The 70 Observer journalists who would transfer across to Tortoise have concerns about job security and editorial independence.

Tortoise Media said yesterday: “We want to save The Observer, both for today’s readers and the generation to come. We have heard from a lot of Observer journalists who are excited about our ambition for the paper – and the people we bring with digital skills in podcasts, data journalism and newsletters, the investment that means new staff jobs, a much bigger editorial budget and a real plan for growth.

“We believe we can strengthen liberal journalism, adding to the range and reach of progressive voices; we can enable The Observer to reach new readers, as a Sunday newspaper with a digital life of its own; and we can renew the paper as a powerful voice in the world.”

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The chair of the Scott Trust has offered to meet a consortium of press freedom groups which has raised concerns over the sale of The Observer.

The board of the Trust, a limited company which owns Guardian Media Group, was expected to meet on Monday 25 November, to discuss proposals to sell The Observer to Tortoise Media.

With Guardian and Observer journalists set to hold a 48-hour strike on 4 December in protest at the deal, the Trust is under pressure to make a decision.

The Scott Trust has received a letter co-signed by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, the European Federation of Journalists, Index on Censorship, International Press Institute and OBC Transeuropa demanding answers to six key questions about the sale of The Observer.

Tortoise Media is believed to have funding of £20m to invest in turning The Observer into a stand-alone newspaper and paywalled website. According to the FT, The Scott Trust may also provide additional investment in the deal and the body has already said it plans to retain a stake in The Observer.

The letter sent by the press freedom groups to the Trust and Tortoise Media asks the following questions:

“The Observer is the leading liberal, progressive Sunday newspaper in the UK. Given the Scott Trust’s commitment to safeguarding freedom of the press and liberal journalism, what protections will be included in any deal to protect its editorial independence?

“What safeguards regarding future ownership will be written into the sale?”

The groups also asked a question about whether the Trust has properly vetted all the potential investors, including looking at foreign business links.

The letter says: “Individuals we spoke to described Tortoise’s business plan as ‘unconvincing’ and ‘seriously under-financed’. What is the Scott Trust’s responsibility if this plan fails? Are any safeguards being included in the deal?

“Why is the sale of The Observer being discussed only with one preferred bidder instead of through an open, transparent and fair process?

“Will you allow Observer and Guardian staff to speak out freely about the impact of the deal on press freedom and UK media plurality without fear of sanction or recrimination? At present, they report being unable to voice their opinions freely or have been warned against doing so.”

Scott Trust chair Ole Jacob Sunde has written back to the groups saying: “Thank you for your letter and the questions that you raise. We will happily respond to your points. Perhaps, in the first instance, we could arrange a call so I can better understand your concerns.

“As you will know, The Guardian has been a partner to your organisations on various vital journalistic endeavours – including the anti-SLAPPS coalition. We hope you know us to share values on many areas in the media landscape.

“We take our obligations to safeguarding the future of liberal journalism very seriously and would welcome you sharing more about where you believe there’s misalignment.”

Press Gazette understands the groups have asked for written answers and cannot offer a meeting until early December.

Observer journalist Carole Cadwalladr has been told by Guardian management that her public statements about the proposed Observer deal may be in breach of her contract and has been ask to “desist” from saying anything publicly which brings Guardian News and Media “into disrepute”.

Cadwalladr was the keynote speaker on Friday 23 November at a Malta conference on media freedom run by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe during which she denounced the sale of The Observer to Tortoise as an “existential threat to our journalism”.

A spokesperson for Tortoise Media said: “We want to save The Observer, both for today’s readers and the generation to come. We have heard from a lot of Observer journalists who are excited about our ambition for the paper – and the people we bring with digital skills in podcasts, data journalism and newsletters, the investment that means new staff jobs, a much bigger editorial budget and a real plan for growth.

“We believe we can strengthen liberal journalism, adding to the range and reach of progressive voices; we can enable The Observer to reach new readers, as a Sunday newspaper with a digital life of its own; and we can renew the paper as a powerful voice in the world.”

On the subject of the letter, Tortoise said: “We have not received a letter from these bodies, but we are happy to provide assurances on editorial independence. All of our investors are fully committed to the robust principles of editorial freedom that are enshrined in our articles of association and overseen by an independent editorial board chaired by former FT editor Richard Lambert.”

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Observer writer Carole Cadwalladr has denounced plans to sell the title to Tortoise Media at an international conference on press freedom – despite being told to “desist” by management after previous public statements about the deal

Cadwalladr is one of few serving Guardian or Observer journalists to have spoken out publicly about the proposal to transfer the title and its 70 staff to Tortoise Media despite widespread opposition. Some 93% of Guardian and Observer journalists voted in favour of strike action in protest at the deal this week.

The podcast publisher says it has £20m to invest in turning The Observer into a standalone newspaper with a paywalled website. But Cadwalladr and many other Guardian staff feel the deal puts the future of the title in jeopardy.

Cadwalladr, who is on a freelance contract with The Observer, was written to by management after appearing on the Media Confidential podcast hosted by former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger earlier this month.

Press Gazette understands she has been accused of disparaging colleagues and the company and of making inaccurate statements. Cadwalladr said she denies disparaging anyone and said no detail has been given about alleged inaccuracies.

All Observer and Guardian journalists are required to adhere to the GNM editorial code which states: “It is important that outside interests do not come into conflict with journalists’ work for GNM in any way that could compromise, or appear to compromise, the editorial integrity and reputation of individual journalists or GNM”. Freelance contributors are required to sign a contract which states: “You shall not at any time do anything to bring GNM’s brands, trademarks or reputation into disrepute”.

Cadwalladr was told that it was third occasion she had breached company ruleswith recent public statements and been asked to “desist”.

But Cadwalladr told Press Gazette: “I’ve decided that my loyalty lies with the readers of The Observer.”

Cadwalladr was the keynote speaker today (Friday 22 November) at a Malta conference on media freedom run by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

New age of ‘politically motivated witch hunts’

She warned that the US “is entering a new age of politically motivated witch hunts that will look like McCarthyism on steroids” in her address.

And she spoke about her legal fight with political donor Arron Banks which left her with a £1.2m costs bill.

She said: “The biggest political donor in UK history didn’t sue the Guardian, instead, he came after me as an individual. He waited for me to repeat a line from a Guardian article in a talk, and he sued me for that.

“It was clever and deliberate and designed to silence and intimidate me. To isolate me from my news organisation. And to silence and intimidate all journalism into him. And it worked.

“And this, I have no doubt, is a playbook that will be deployed against other journalists.

“It wasn’t just that the lawsuit tied me up for years in litigation and led to years of stress and fear, it also became a central weapon in an online harassment and abuse campaign against me. Every court report led to a new wave of attacks. It was like being trapped in a washing machine, a spin cycle of abuse.”

‘Grave threat’ warning over Observer deal

And she went on to tell the conference that her own news organisation “is under grave threat”.

She said: “All of mine and my colleagues’ work is read by a global audience on the Guardian’s website. But in the UK, it also appears in the print edition of The Observer, The Guardian’s Sunday sister newspaper.

“And, as we speak, The Guardian’s board has approved the sale of The Observer – the oldest Sunday newspaper in the world – to a tiny, financially unprofitable podcast company.

“We, the journalists of both The Guardian and The Observer, believe that this is an existential threat to our journalism.

“We believe the company that is seeking to buy us has no track record of success, no business model and insufficient funds. We don’t understand why no alternatives have been considered. We believe that The Guardian is risking the trust of the readers by making such a reckless decision in haste. We believe it is the beginning of the end of our newspaper.

“Now, 93% of us have voted to go on strike.

“I’m telling you this because ownership matters. The British government has previously scrutinised the potential buyers of news organisations and I urge it do so in this case.

“Because the freedom of the press is precious and fragile and when a news organisation dies, it leaves a gaping hole. Politicians go unscrutinised, crimes go unreported, human rights abuses go undocumented.

“If press freedom means anything, it has to mean the ability to speak out to advocate for the survival of our own news organisation. Because if a newspaper is allowed to die, it’s never coming back.

“And at this point, we, the journalists of The Guardian and Observer, believe The Guardian’s management is an active threat to press freedom.

“I’m speaking on behalf of those journalists when I say that we believe its actions are imperilling the survival of a 240-year-old newspaper.”

The Scott Trust, which owns Guardian Media Group, is expected to make a decision in principle over selling The Observer on Monday,

A Guardian spokesperson said: “We recognise the strength of feeling about the proposed sale of the Observer. Our priority is to serve our readers, protect jobs and support our staff, so that the Guardian and the Observer can continue to promote liberal journalism and thrive in a challenging media environment.”

Concluding her speech, Cadwalladr said: “I’ve learned the hard way what happens when journalism comes under attack. I am lucky. I live in a country with strong institutions and rule of law. I faced a civil not a criminal suit. And it still felt like an existential struggle for survival. I’m only now two years on, recovering my psychological and physical health. And I’m ending by telling you this because there is a global witch hunt coming. And what happened to me must not be allowed to happen to other journalists.

“I am just one person. But what I worry is that news organisations will find reasons to not provide financial and other support to their journalists when they come under attack. They will be afraid of the consequences. They will find loopholes and excuses to not do the right thing.

“This is what happened to me. I faced my nightmare alone. But we cannot let that happen to other journalists. Because a threat to one journalist is a threat to all. A threat to one news organisation is a threat to all.

“There is a curtain of darkness that is falling across the world, a blanket of fake news and lies is smothering the truth and we know where that leads. We simply cannot afford to let this happen.”

A source close to The Guardian said: “Carole is a fantastic campaigning journalist and welcome to an opinion but many would respectfully disagree with her that this deal threatens the future of this business – what this about is enabling the Observer to thrive.”

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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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Daily Mail publisher DMG Media has made a “significant investment” in Prorata.ai, a generative artificial intelligence platform that plans to share revenue with publishers each time their content is used to answer a user query.

The deal gives Prorata access to DMG Media’s content, which includes the archives of the Mail, Mail Online, Metro, the i and New Scientist.

Guardian Media Group and Sky News all also announced on Wednesday that they have made their content available to the start-up, and they were joined on Thursday by magazine Prospect.

The Financial Times reports that the DMG Media investment values Prorata at about $130m (£100m). Press Gazette understands Sky News is also considering investing in the start-up.

DMG Media on Prorata: ‘It could be the cornerstone of a sustainable economic model for news’

Prorata has not yet launched any public-facing products, but has already signedsimilar content-sharing deals with the Financial Times, Fortune, Axel Springer and The Atlantic.

The company has previously told Press Gazette that it has created a mechanism that lets AI platforms determine “the value of contributing content” in a generative AI response and as a result “calculate proportional compensation” for the originators of that content. It has said it will make the technology available to license to other AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.

Prorata says it will share half the revenue from its forthcoming subscriptions to its licensing partners.

The business hopes to provide a solution to publishers who don’t want to be left behind should consumers move toward generative AI-powered search, but who have been burned by other AI companies who have ingested their content to create their large language models without providing any compensation.

[Read more: News Corp seeks massive damages from AI firm Perplexity for stealing content]

DMG Media vice chairman Rich Caccappolo said its deal with Prorata made the company “the first UK news publisher to invest in an equity stake in this industry-leading platform”.

“The rise of large language models and real-time content scraping represents a material threat to the news industry. There is a critical need to attribute content used by LLMs to generate answers and compensate all content creators for their work.

“ProRata’s platform is a vital first step toward advancing accurate and fair attribution and promoting transparency. It could be the cornerstone of a sustainable economic model for news publishers, giving them the incentive to continue investing in high-quality, informative journalism.”

David Rhodes, the executive chairman of Sky News, said: “Global audiences trust Sky News to give them the full story, first. ProRata’s solution helps advance that high-quality, impartial journalism across AI platforms and publishers.

“With all our partners today we’re securing our company’s massive investment in fair and accurate news reporting – now, and well into the future.”

Guardian Media Group chief executive Anna Bateson said: “The trusted, quality journalism for which The Guardian is world-renowned must be fairly credited and valued when used by AI platforms. Prorata respects and promotes these fundamental principles, and we are pleased to be partnering with them.”

And Prospect chief executive Mark Beard said: “In this age of disinformation, we respect and warmly approve of Prorata.ai’s approach. We share Prorata.ai’s belief that fact-checked, authoritative journalism is critical and will not only survive but thrive, if the publishers who produce it are credited and fairly rewarded alongside the technology companies that surface it.”  

Prorata’s chief executive Bill Gross told Press Gazette in August: “Current AI answer engines rely on shoplifted, plagiarised content. This creates an environment where creators get nothing, and disinformation thrives…

“Our technology allows creators to get credited and compensated while consumers get attributed, accurate answers. This solution will lead to a broader movement across the entire AI industry.”

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Guardian and Observer journalists have agreed to a 48-hour strike in protest at the planned sale of The Observer to Tortoise Media.

Meanwhile, Tortoise has come out punching and issued a statement insisting that it has a plan to save The Observer from irrelevance and closure under its current owners.

And Guardian Media Group management has issued an update to staff saying Observer journalists who don’t want to join Tortoise may be offered voluntary redundancy.

The strike will take place on Wednesday and Thursday 4 and 5 December – the earliest point at which it is legally allowed to happen. Press Gazette understands that a second 48-hour stoppage has been pencilled in for the following week.

Journalists have opted for 48 hours, rather than 24, to maximise disruption and the stoppage would be likely to disrupt print production.

The decision to stage the walkout came after a union meeting on Wednesday attended by several hundred staff. Press Gazette understands the vote was overwhelmingly in favour of a strike.

Press Gazette understands that around 500 journalists at The Guardian and Observer titles are members of the NUJ and around 400 took part in the official strike ballot which took place ahead of today’s meeting.

Some 93% of those voting agreed to strike action, suggesting overwhelming opposition amongst staff to the Tortoise Media bid for The Observer.

Staff remain concerned about job security for the 70 Observer journalists who would transfer across to Tortoise Media and questions remain over funding for the bid.

Tortoise Media majority shareholder and founder James Harding has promised £25m of investment in The Observer over five years to turn it into a self-funding, paywalled newsbrand. The plan is to attract 100,000 new digital subscribers.

However, Observer insiders have now been told that the planned investment in place is £20m.

According to a Tortoise Media spokesperson the situation with investment is as follows: £25m will be invested over five years (with more near the start), £20m is to come from new investment and a further £5m will be invested from profits which Tortoise expects to make in the latter part of the business plan.

Journalists question whether this will be enough to cover the gaps in Observer coverage of sport, business and foreign news that would be left by departing The Guardian, and they see loss-making Tortoise as a precarious owner.

NUJ representatives met Guardian Media Group management in ACAS-brokered talks on Thursday and were told that due diligence for the Tortoise Media bid has now been completed.

One Observer insider said the mood is “very dark” and there is an expectation that the deal looks likely to go ahead. Guardian editor-in-chief Kath Viner, who also sits on the Scott Trust board, is understood to have power of veto over the deal and one insider said journalists are hopeful she will block it.

The GMG board is now putting the offer to the Scott Trust board for a decision in principle at its next meeting next week. The Scott Trust is the not-for-profit company which owns GMG and has the ultimate say over whether to sell The Observer.

Press Gazette understands the deal will need 75% approval from the 12-person Scott Trust board in order to go ahead.

NUJ representatives on The Guardian and Observer believe that under their house agreement with management, the proposed deal should be suspended whilst the matter is in dispute. They have also questioned why there is apparent haste to push the deal through before Christmas under what is seen as a Tortoise-imposed timetable.

GMG is currently in a period of exclusive negotiations with Tortoise Media to buy The Observer, but Press Gazette understands at least one rival consortium has expressed an interest in buying the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, which is believed to sell around 100,000 copies per week.

GMG chief executive Anna Bateson has hinted at cutbacks and changes to The Observer if the Tortoise deal does not go ahead, warning staff in a letter last month that if the deal does not proceed there would be “a strategic audit of The Observer which would involve some difficult choices – and that would need to happen urgently”.

Guardian management: Talks with NUJ continue

A spokesperson for Guardian News and Media said: “We recognise the strength of feeling about the proposed sale of the Observer and appreciate that NUJ members wish to make their views heard. While we respect the right to strike, we do not believe a strike is the best course of action in this case and our talks with the NUJ continue.

“Our priority is to serve our readers and support our staff, so that the Guardian and the Observer can continue to promote liberal journalism and thrive in a challenging media environment.”

Tortoise Media: ‘We want to save the Observer from closure’

Tortoise Media issued the following statement following the strike vote:

“We want to save The Observer. Everyone can see it is heading down a path to irrelevance and, probably sooner rather than later, closure. In the last 15 years, sales on a Sunday are down 70 per cent, the staff has shrunk by more than 60 per cent, the paper no longer has foreign, business or sports coverage of its own; home news is likely to be next; how long do you think The Guardian will keep two sets of critics reviewing the same plays, films, art and music? The Observer is a print-only brand in a digital age, its journalism lives, briefly and unloved, on The Guardian website.

“We have heard from a lot of Observer journalists who are excited about our ambition for the paper – the people with digital skills, the money for new staff jobs and a bigger editorial budget and the plan for growth that we bring. They also know the Guardian’s plan for ‘an urgent audit’ of The Observer if the deal doesn’t go ahead is code for folding it in or closing it down.

“We want to work with the unions, but we don’t think they’re right to defend things staying as they are. The path of managed, accelerating decline is not the answer. The majority of people who have voted in this ballot don’t work on the paper and this deal doesn’t directly affect them.

“We hope the NUJ will listen to the growing number of voices on The Observer looking to see it given a new lease of life, investment in journalism and a plan for the future.”

Following the Tortoise Media statement Press Gazette spoke to an Observer insider who said it was wrong to suggest the strike does not have strong support inside the Observer team. They said support for the strike was, if anything, stronger at the Observer than it was across Guardian/Observer chapel as a whole.

Guardian CEO Bateson says Observer staff may be offered voluntary redundancy

Guadian CEO Bateston has issued an update to all staff confiming that the Tortoise bid for the Observer will now go to the Scott Trust for final approval.

She said: “There was a GMG board meeting last week. They reviewed the current state of negotiations, the strategic position of the Observer and the due diligence that has been undertaken. The board gave its support to management to continue to pursue the proposal from Tortoise. The proposal will now be considered by the Scott Trust.

“In terms of the due diligence process, while we have completed much of this work, we continue to negotiate on some of the transitional services. I hope to be able to outline more on this in the next couple of weeks.

“We have been holding regular meetings with Observer staff and the NUJ for the past seven weeks to discuss the potential sale of the Observer. Yesterday, we continued our talks with the NUJ at ACAS. It was a further opportunity for both sides to exchange views, hear different perspectives and try to find common ground. That process is ongoing but we are able to update you on some of the areas we were able to make progress on.

“We have listened to requests from Observer staff and, at ACAS yesterday, we informed the NUJ that we are considering offering voluntary redundancy to Observer staff if the deal goes ahead. This would be on the same terms we offered to editorial colleagues in the summer. Suzy Black, HR Director, will be writing to the Observer team to explain this in a bit more detail.”

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The Guardian US team had more reason than most to feel disconsolate after Donald Trump‘s surprisingly emphatic US election victory.

The title has, perhaps more than any other mainstream US newsbrand, declared its opposition to Trump and what he stands for.

Asked how she set about rallying the team after the election on 5 November, Guardian US editor Betsy Reed said: “I’m really not the kind of person who’s going to charge in there and give a pep talk at a moment when everyone is really exhausted and depressed.

“So instead we had a newsroom meeting that was more sombre and allowed people to express how they’re feeling about this moment…

“Then we have to make sure people know why our mission is still really vital and important and unique and why our jobs are so important in this moment.”

Reed helped raise around $2m in reader revenue for The Guardian with just a few minutes’ work after she sent out a five-paragraph email to its millions of newsletter subscribers on 26 October noting the brand’s leader column opposing Trump.

She contrasted The Guardian’s position (that Trump’s “history of dishonesty, hypocrisy and greed makes him wholly unfit for the office”) with that of The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, which both stayed neutral. Noting the editorial independence of The Guardian, Reed said in her email that both those rival titles “have billionaire owners who could face retaliation in a Trump presidency”.

Reed is keen to emphasise that years of work from the whole Guardian US team has gone into building various email newsletters which enable it to reach millions of readers with funding pleas.

The Guardian US has 11 email newsletters in total, with Fighting Back (the opinion desk’s response to a Trump victory) the most recent launch.

The Guardian US is now hoping to raise $4m in total of additional reader revenue by the end of the year.

But who is the UK-owned Guardian to tell US voters what to do, and does its opposition to their democratically-elected leader not irk some readers?

“We haven’t had that feedback,” Reed responds. “And the reason for that is we are now more global and more American. I’m American, my commercial partner is American and our newsroom is at least half American journalists. I don’t think we are perceived as a foreign entity at this point because we’ve put down real roots in America.”

Guardian America launched in 2007 with an eight-strong team based in Washington and an estimated monthly audience in the US of just over 4 million, according to Nielsen.

Today The Guardian US has 160 staff, including 110 in editorial, mainly based in New York but with bureaux in Washington and California. (Around 50 staff were hired in 2013 to get the site ready for election year.)

Reed, who joined The Guardian in 2022 after seven years leading non-profit campaigning US news website The Intercept, says it reaches 47 million unique users per month in the US.

Overall, she says, page views to US-produced content are a 50/50 split between US readers and the rest of the world.

The Guardian US is funded by a combination of reader revenue (donations and subscriptions), advertising and philanthropic donations, which are made via the separate non-profit entity the Guardian.org Foundation. This last category funds specific areas of reporting and saw donations of $3m last year, down from $5m in 2022.

Guardian revenue for North America is available in published accounts dating back to 2019 and shows steady growth until the year to March 2024, when it fell by just over £1m.

North America accounted for £45.3m of Guardian turnover in the year to March 2024 (compared with £167.1m in the UK).

The Guardian made an overall loss of £36.5m in its last financial year, but Reed said the US operation is self-funding.

Asked what makes The Guardian US stand out in a crowded news market, Reed pointed to its more global view, its openness (outside any paywall) and "our liberal values and grounding in progressive principles".

The victory for Trump has been seen by some as a failure for big news organisations like The Guardian, CNN and The New York Times which opposed him.

Is there a danger that journalists effectively played Trump's game in the last election by reporting and amplifying the various outrageous comments he made over the course of the campaign?

"I do think that the outrage cycle is a serious challenge in media, and I don't think it's a simple one, because I think when you have a presidential candidate trafficking in outright fabrications, racist fabrications, for example the charge that Haitian migrants are stealing and eating their neighbours' pets in Springfield, Illinois, I feel like it's incumbent on the media to cover that.

"I think the strategy has to be cover that news story, but also simultaneously pull people away from that and into more substantive stories about what's really going on in the country, how Trump and his policies are disconnected from the real interests and needs of American voters."

[Read more: Polls, trust and video shorts: Lessons for news publishers from US election]

She adds later: "There's been a big loss of this environment where we're all collectively operating from the same set of facts. So, I mean, I think that's a tremendous challenge. There are really terrible repercussions of that for democracy…

"But it also, I think, reinforces the need for fact-based journalism and journalism that is itself accountable to readers."

The Guardian left X (formerly Twitter) earlier this month because, it said, the platform had become toxic under owner Elon Musk.

Press Gazette understands this led to the second biggest day ever for Guardian reader revenue contributions, (beaten only by Reed's election email funding plea).

Reed said Instagram, Youtube, Apple News and email are now the biggest platforms for the title other than the website itself.

Big hits for The Guardian US over the last year have included its new investigation team's revelations about allegations of sexual misconduct against the magician David Copperfield (shortlisted for a British Journalism Award) and an investigation into the cost of US healthcare.

Election exclusives for The Guardian US have included three big stories about the mistreatment of animals by senior right-wing political figures.

In April The Guardian revealed that Republican contender for Vice President Kristi Noem once shot and killed a healthy pet dog (as well as the family goat).

In September, the title revealed that Kevin Roberts (architect of the Project 2025 policy manifesto) boasted to colleagues that he once killed a neighbour's dog with a shovel because it was barking too loudly.

And in October it revealed that the head of the NRA Doug Hamlin was involved in the torture and killing of a cat while at college.

Outside politics, The Guardian US is investing in its coverage of soccer (football in the UK), health and wellness.

Asked what The Guardian US plans are for covering America in the era of Trump Two, Reed says: "We definitely want to double down on areas of success like newsletters, and outside of Trump and politics we want to make sure that we're offering readers a diversity of content and things that give them joy and hope."

The post Guardian US editor Betsy Reed: ‘We want to offer readers joy and hope’ appeared first on Press Gazette.

A wave of news publishers have arrived on Bluesky in recent days, following audiences and journalists departing X/Twitter.

Days after announcing it was leaving X, The Guardian has become one of a flurry of news publishers to set up an account on the rival microblogging platform.

A significant uptick in account registrations since the US election has prompted a wave of new journalists and publishers to start posting to Bluesky over the past week. As of midday Tuesday it had 20 million accounts, up from 16 million before the weekend.

There has been a gradual flow of users from X toward rival platforms since Elon Musk bought the network in October 2022, but the influx has accelerated since the tech entrepreneur became closely involved with Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and then his fledgling second administration. Meta platform Threads, which has signalled an intent not to get entangled with the news industry, appears not to have benefitted from the exodus in the same way as Bluesky.

Publications including The Economist, The Week, the i, Kent Online and ITV News have joined Bluesky in the past week, and previously dormant accounts from the likes of Politico, Semafor, The Lead, Tortoise and Pink News have resumed activity. The National Union of Journalists has also set up, as well as press regulator IPSO.

All of the above have either verified they are official accounts by making their handle their website address, or Press Gazette has confirmed they are official with the publishers themselves.

Although the publications appear to have been joined by numerous big names in journalism, including BBC presenter Matt Chorley and Guardian editor Katharine Viner, few of them have verified their identities. One who has is Sky News lead politics presenter Sophy Ridge, who observed that she appears to be getting more engagement on Bluesky than on X despite having a far smaller following.

Charlie Baker, editor of quarterly print magazine The Fence, agreed that Bluesky engagement has been good, telling Press Gazette: “The Fence got 4,000 followers over the weekend, and we’re enjoying a very high level of engagement. It’s a lot of fun and long may that continue.”

Josh Billinson, the senior social media editor at Semafor, posted on Monday that he had recommenced the publisher’s activity on Bluesky a week earlier “and it already has more followers than the Threads account I’ve been posting to consistently for over a year”.

Where is news publisher Bluesky follower growth coming from?

Bluesky does not include algorithmic recommendations as a standard feature of user timelines. As a result, so-called starter packs — lists created by users of accounts, usually grouped around a single theme and who can all be followed at a single click — have been the leading driver of rapid account growth.

Freelance Chaminda Jayanetti wrote last week that “with warp speed I now have more followers here than on Twitter, which (genuinely) has very little to do with my posts here but really shows the effect of starter packs”.

Getting into a widely-used starter pack in the first place can be another matter, however. Several news organisations have been creating their own, allowing users to follow all of their journalists at once, and a third-party Bluesky directory makes it possible to search for packs on specific themes.

As well as the starter packs, Press Gazette has written previously about a feed containing posts from verified news providers which is maintained by Financial Times data journalism engineer Ændra Rininsland. She said on Monday the feed was receiving one million requests a day. Only news outlets that have linked their handle to their domain name may apply for inclusion in the feed.

[Read more: Twitter alternative? News publishers see potential in Bluesky]

Journalists sign open letter declaring X/Twitter ‘no longer a useful tool’ for reporting

In the past week a group of more than 30 journalists ut their names to an open letter declaring X to be “no longer a useful tool” for reporting.

The signatories include Guardian North of England correspondent Robyn Vinter, investigative journalist Peter Geoghegan, Foreign Press Association London director Deborah Bonetti and former Guardian special correspondent Nick Davies.

The letter, organised by Byline Times chief reporter Josiah Mortimer, said Twitter “played an important role in shaping many of our careers” and that “it was, for a long time, the place to be for UK politics”.

But, it added, “we believe that time is over now”.

The Elon Musk-owned platform has long been a useful way for journalists to find stories, verify information and contact sources, as well as to distribute their work and meet peers.

However the signatories argued that under Musk “feeds have become less useful. Engagement has plummeted, except for those who will pay. Replies gain traction not through merit, but through the corrupted blue-tick system.

“We have seen hate speech and abuse deliberately dialled up and amplified, boosted not just by the algorithm, but by the owner himself… It is no longer a useful tool for objective reporting, but a weapon being wielded by a narrowing ideological set.”

The letter adds that in lieu of X, “we are all putting the majority of our efforts into building more constructive online spaces elsewhere”, in particular Bluesky.

The letter and the full list of signatories can be viewed here.

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Former Express online editorial director Tom Hunt is now editor-in-chief of the brand.

In recent months Gary Jones has left the Express after six years as editor-in-chief and subsequently Sunday Express editor David Wooding also departed.

Jones was the second editor-in-chief of a Reach national newspaper to leave their post this year after six years: Alison Phillips stepped down from the Mirror at the end of January and was succeeded by Caroline Waterston.

Also this year London free business newspaper City AM, which is expanding its remit nationally, has appointed its former editor Christian May to return to the role.

Press Gazette has put together a round-up of the UK’s national newspaper editors as they stand (in no particular order). We will keep this list updated.

UK national newspaper editors

The Times

Tony Gallagher was appointed editor of The Times on 28 September 2022 following the resignation of John Witherow the day before.

Gallagher was promoted from deputy editor, and had already been acting as caretaker editor for several months while Witherow was on medical leave.

Gallagher joined The Times in February 2020 from fellow News UK title The Sun where he was editor for five years. He has also previously edited The Daily Telegraph between 2009 and 2014.

The Sunday Times

Ben Taylor was named editor of The Sunday Times on 19 January 2023, stepping up from deputy editor after news Emma Tucker would be leaving to lead The Wall Street Journal from 1 February.

Taylor was previously executive editor of the Daily Mail, where he worked for 22 years, before joining The Sunday Times as deputy editor in 2020.

Daily Mail

Ted Verity has edited the Daily Mail since November 2021, having previously been at the helm of the Mail on Sunday since 2018 and deputy at the daily paper before that.

He is editor-in-chief of Mail Newspapers, meaning he has overall responsibility for the Mail brands in a seven-day operation.

Mail on Sunday

Following Verity’s promotion, David Dillon was appointed to be Mail on Sunday editor in December 2021. He was previously Verity’s deputy.

Dillon first joined the Mail on Sunday from the Daily Express in 2001, working as news editor for a number of years before being promoted to executive editor.

The Sun and The Sun on Sunday

Victoria Newton has been editor-in-chief of The Sun since February 2020. She had been editor at The Sun on Sunday since 2013 but took over from Gallagher when he left The Sun for The Times.

Newton has maintained responsibility for the Sunday title in her editor-in-chief role.

Daily Mirror

Caroline Waterston, previously editor-in-chief of Reach magazines and supplements, has edited the Daily Mirror since the start of February 2024 – initially on an interim basis before she was made permanent on 30 April.

Waterston first joined Reach (then Trinity Mirror) in the mid-1990s and her roles have included deputy news editor and features editor of The People, features editor of the Sunday Mirror, head of features and deputy editor on the Sunday titles, deputy editor-in-chief across the Express and Star titles after their acquisition by Reach, and editor-in-chief of the national magazines including OK! magazine.

Waterston took over from Alison Phillips, who had edited the Daily Mirror since March 2018 and was editor-in-chief of that title plus the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People from February 2020 with the move to a seven-day operation.

The Daily Telegraph

Chris Evans has been editor of The Telegraph since January 2014 after the sacking of Tony Gallagher. He has been with The Telegraph since 2007, with previous roles including news editor and head of news, after joining from the Daily Mail where he spent 11 years.

The Sunday Telegraph

Although Evans has ultimate editorial responsibility at The Telegraph, Allister Heath has edited The Sunday Telegraph since 2017, having previously been Telegraph deputy editor.

Daily Express and Sunday Express

Tom Hunt, formerly Express online editorial director, was named editor-in-chief of the brand on 20 September.

At the Daily Express he succeeded Gary Jones who stepped down after six years in the role, which he used to detoxify the brand. Sunday Express editor David Wooding departed his own role about two months later as the Express becomes a seven-day operation without a dedicated Sunday Express team.

Before that Hunt had been with the Express for more than eight years, including as video news editor, leading its first team dedicated to video, and head of news.

Hunt said: “There is a huge opportunity here which I’m excited to take further, both digitally and in print, particularly as we cover Labour’s first months in office and see out a Conservative leadership contest.”

The Guardian

Katharine Viner has been editor-in-chief at The Guardian since 2015, when she was voted by staff to take over from Alan Rusbridger. She was previously editor-in-chief at The Guardian’s US edition.

The Observer

Under Viner’s leadership, Paul Webster edits The Observer. Viner appointed him to the role in 2018, after 20 years as deputy at the Sunday paper.

i

Oly Duff has been editor-in-chief of the i since June 2013, when he became the UK’s youngest national newspaper editor aged 29 – a title he maintains today.

Financial Times

Roula Khalaf has edited The Financial Times since January 2020, when she succeeded Lionel Barber who spent 14 years as editor.

Khalaf had been Barber’s deputy since 2016 and her previous roles at the FT included foreign editor and Middle East editor. She first joined the business newspaper in 1995.

Daily Star

Jon Clark has been seven-day editor-in-chief at the Daily Star since March 2018 after the paper was bought by Reach (then Trinity Mirror). He was previously associate editor at the Daily Mirror from 2013.

Daily Star on Sunday

Under Clark’s leadership, Denis Mann edits the Daily Star on Sunday and is a deputy on the daily. He has similarly held the role since March 2018.

The Independent

Geordie Greig was appointed as editor-in-chief of the digital-only The Independent in January 2023, just over a year after being ousted from editing the Daily Mail. He has previously edited the Mail on Sunday, Evening Standard and Tatler.

He took over at The Independent from David Marley, who had been acting editor since October 2020 when Christian Broughton was promoted to managing director.

Free newspaper editors

Metro

Deborah Arthurs is editor-in-chief of Metro in print and online, having taken the lead on a new combined operation in March 2023.

She had been editor of Metro.co.uk from 2014 and a “gentle refresh” of the brand aligning print and online marked the beginning of her tenure as overall editor.

Arthurs has taken over from Ted Young, who had been editing the print newspaper for eight years.

Evening Standard

Former GQ editor of 22 years Dylan Jones was appointed editor-in-chief of the Evening Standard following a brief period as editorial consultant.

Jones began in the role on Monday 5 June 2023, becoming the news outlet’s first permanent editor in more than 18 months.

Before him, Jack Lefley was acting editor from July 2022 and Charlotte Ross had previously been acting editor from October 2021.

The last full-time editors were Emily Sheffield, who left in October 2021 after 15 months, and former chancellor George Osborne, who was in post between May 2017 and July 2020.

City AM

Former City AM editor Christian May is returning to the free business title after almost four years away at the end of August 2024.

He succeeds Andy Silvester, May’s former deputy who took on the role himself, whose last day was Thursday 18 July.

May described his previous five-year stint as editor as “the happiest and most rewarding years of my life”, adding: “I couldn’t be more excited to rejoin the team at City AM as it gears up for an ambitious era of growth and innovation.”

The post Who are the UK’s national newspaper editors? appeared first on Press Gazette.

Top news sites collectively received 7.5% fewer visits on the Tuesday and Wednesday of the 2024 US election than they did on those days in 2020, data from Similarweb shows.

The Associated Press, Substack and Axios were among the sites with the most growth between the two elections, while Politico, Fox News, The Guardian and The New York Times all lost substantial proportions of their traffic – according to Similarweb.

After aggregator Yahoo.com (130.6 million visits on Tuesday 5 and Wednesday 6 November) CNN was the most-visited news site in the US, drawing 109.1 million clicks. That figure is down 19.4% on the same days in the 2020 election.

The New York Times (62.4 million) was the second most-visited publisher, but its traffic too dropped 36.3%. Fox News, the third most popular publisher on the list, saw traffic drop 46.8% when compared with the 2020 election, the fifth-largest fall among the top 50 most-visited sites.

Among the ten most-visited news sites over election night, Fox was the biggest faller, followed by The New York Times and CNN. The AP (47.6 million visits, up 247.1%) was the biggest gainer, followed by NBC News (44.3 million, up 120.2%) and USA Today (27.7 million, up 70.1%). The rest of the top ten saw single-digit percentage point changes.

The significant declines at the most-visited sites may reflect broader news avoidance trends or the relative speed with which the result of the 2024 election became clear. The 2020 election, in comparison, took days to be called.

Among the broader top 50 election night news sites the fastest grower was Axios, which saw visits grow 291.7% from 1.8 million in 2020 to 7.2 million last week.

Faster growing still was publishing platform Substack (5.1 million, up 423.1%), which hosts publications by numerous journalists and was less than three years old at the time of the last election.

Web culture site The Daily Dot (2.2m, up 287.5%), Al Jazeera (3.3 million, up 204.2%) and People magazine (11.5 million, up 115.5%) also substantially outperformed their 2020 traffic totals.

The biggest fall, on the other hand, was at Politico (8.8 million visits in 2024, down 63.7% from its 2020 total of 24.3 million), followed by Yahoo News (5.4 million, down 54.8%) and Business Insider (4.2 million, down 48.8%). The Guardian (10.6 million, down 45.2%) Google News (11.3 million, down 40.2%) and Breitbart (3.9 million, down 48.5%) were all also significantly hit.

NBC News, Associated Press and climate site The Cooldown saw largest election week traffic surges

Similarweb data also shows that, among the 100 top news sites in the US, NBC News saw the largest week-on-week increase in its web traffic over the week of the election, with visits nearly tripling compared with the week before.

Climate website The Cooldown saw a comparable increase of 209.4% and the AP received 207% more traffic than the previous week.

A handful of sites saw fewer visits the week of the election than the week before, among them Cosmopolitan (down 15.1%), Variety (down 13.2%) and Vogue (down 8%).

The post Top publishers saw less traffic on day of 2024 US election versus 2020 appeared first on Press Gazette.