But Tortoise Media, the digital start-up which controversially acquired the venerable title in December, is aiming to surprise the UK news industry by reinvigorating interest in the age-old format of the printed newspaper. It’s a bold plan but many are unconvinced it will succeed, not least the large number of Observer staff who have preferred to take redundancy.
It seems counter-intuitive. Tortoise launched as an online publisher in 2019 and is primarily a podcast producer. It was embraced by Guardian Media Group (GMG), owner of The Observer from 1993, as a suitor that could create a digital future for the Sunday paper. The Observer had been marginalised by GMG’s focus on The Guardian brand. The sale proposal prompted a strike by Guardian and Observer journalists but was pushed through by the Scott Trust, GMG’s owner.
If Tortoise achieves its vision it will be without half The Observer’s staff, who decided against joining the rescue plan. Departing journalists include star writers Sonia Sodha and Catherine Bennett. Jane Ferguson, editor of the New Review culture section, is leaving with most of her team. The restaurant critic Jay Rayner quit for the Financial Times. The investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr, a critic of the sale, was not offered a contract and set up on Substack.
While the commitment to print is a legal obligation from an earlier contract signed by GMG, Tortoise hopes to create a high-end destination for advertisers. The Observer will print on 52gsm (grams per square metre) paper, heavier than that used by GMG. “That makes a difference in the legibility, it makes a difference in the photographic reproduction, it makes a difference in the tactility,” says Jon Hill, The Observer’s creative director. “It gives the whole paper a step up in the market.”
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The Observer sale is good news - time to embrace the future
Read MoreFurness, until recently The Guardian’s chief strategy officer, believes the investment puts The Observer in a “unique situation” within the sector. “I cannot think of another newsroom in the country that will be saying ‘How can we make our print edition a more premium destination?’”
Yet The Observer will die without an online future. It aims to emulate titles such as The Atlantic and The Spectator with a digital-print hybrid subscription model. But its website will initially not be paywalled because it desperately needs reader data to understand its audience.
In the editorial offices, The Observer’s founding principle from 1791 – “Unbiased by prejudice – uninfluenced by party” is pinned on the wall. The Tortoise slogan of “Slow news” still hangs in lights. But the plan to combine the two feels like a breathless rush. For the sake of a pillar of British journalism, let us hope it succeeds.
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