Guardian owner’s chair in desperate bid to reassure staff over Observer sale

The chair of The Guardian’s parent company has insisted that it will remain a part-owner of The Observer hours before staff walk out over the sale of the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper.

Sky News has obtained a memo sent on Tuesday afternoon by Ole Jacob Sunde, chair of the Scott Trust, pledging that The Observer would be governed by a “mature board structure” if the deal with Tortoise Media goes ahead.

In it, he said the transaction would have to meet five criteria for it to be approved by the Scott Trust board, including for it “to stay on as a part-owner of The Observer”.

Reports at the weekend suggested that it would take a small stake in Tortoise itself to fulfil that requirement.

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Mr Sunde also said that The Observer would need to have “secure and sustainable long-term funding”; other owners of the 233-year-old Sunday title would have “to take a long-term view of their investment”; and all owners would have to “embody the values of editorial independence, press freedoms and liberal journalism that have been part of the Observer’s ethos since we bought it in 1993”.

He added that the newspaper would need to “governed by a mature board structure, with a role for the Scott Trust on the Tortoise Media editorial and commercial boards”.

His message came before scores of Guardian staff are expected to strike for the first time in decades in protest at the sale.

On Monday, Sky News revealed that Observer staff who move with the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper to Tortoise Media will be offered continued access to Guardian job openings as part of a last-ditch compromise deal.

Anna Bateson, the Guardian Media Group (GMG) chief executive who is coming under increasingly intense criticism over the deal, said that journalists who did not wish to transfer to Tortoise Media would be offered a “time-limited” voluntary redundancy scheme.

She said that “enhanced redundancy terms would be maintained post-transfer for a period still being negotiated”.

Last week, Dale Vince, the eco-entrepreneur, confirmed he would be interested in investing in The Observer if the sale to Tortoise Media fell through.

Last month, Sky News revealed that the Scott Trust would continue to own a stake in The Observer if the deal went through.

The first in a series of two-day strikes is due to begin on Wednesday, with some department heads who are union members said to feel conflicted over the strike action.

Ms Bateson insisted: “Our priority has always been to preserve the Observer’s 233-year legacy and ensure the proposed agreement is as strong as it can be for staff, readers and the future of liberal journalism.”

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Tortoise, which was co-founded by the former Times editor James Harding, has pledged to retain the newspaper’s focus on areas such as the arts and culture, and said it would invest £25m in it over a five-year period.

However, that pledge has already been tested by the resignation of Jay Rayner, The Observer’s long-serving restaurant critic.

A Scott Trust spokesperson declined to comment.