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

The seat of The Guardian’s genitor institution has insisted that it volition stay a part-owner of The Observer hours earlier unit locomotion retired implicit the merchantability of the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper.

Sky News has obtained a memo sent connected Tuesday day by Ole Jacob Sunde, seat of the Scott Trust, pledging that The Observer would beryllium governed by a "mature committee structure" if the woody with Tortoise Media goes ahead.

In it, helium said the transaction would person to conscionable 5 criteria for it to beryllium approved by the Scott Trust board, including for it "to enactment connected arsenic a part-owner of The Observer".

Reports astatine the play suggested that it would instrumentality a tiny involvement successful Tortoise itself to fulfil that requirement.

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Mr Sunde besides said that: The Observer would request to person "secure and sustainable semipermanent funding"; different owners of the 233 year-old Sunday rubric would person "to instrumentality a semipermanent presumption of their investment"; and each owners would person to "embody the values of editorial independence, property freedoms and wide journalism that person been portion of the Observer's ethos since we bought it successful 1993".

He added that the paper would request to "governed by a mature committee structure, with a relation for the Scott Trust connected the Tortoise Media editorial and commercialized boards".

His connection came earlier scores of Guardian unit are expected to onslaught for the archetypal clip successful decades successful protestation astatine the sale.

On Monday, Sky News revealed that Observer unit who determination with the world's oldest Sunday paper to Tortoise Media volition beryllium offered continued entree to Guardian occupation openings arsenic portion of a last-ditch compromise deal.

Anna Bateson, the Guardian Media Group (GMG) main enforcement who is coming nether progressively aggravated disapproval implicit the deal, said that journalists who did not privation to transportation to Tortoise Media would beryllium offered a "time-limited" voluntary redundancy scheme.

She said that "enhanced redundancy presumption would beryllium maintained post-transfer for a play inactive being negotiated".

Last week, Dale Vince, the eco-entrepreneur, confirmed that helium would beryllium funny successful investing successful The Observer if the merchantability to Tortoise Media fell through.

Last month, Sky News revealed that the Scott Trust would proceed to ain a involvement successful The Observer if the woody went through.

The archetypal successful a bid of two-day strikes is owed to statesman connected Wednesday, with immoderate section heads who are national members said to consciousness conflicted implicit the onslaught action.

Ms Bateson insisted: "Our precedence has ever been to sphere the Observer's 233-year bequest and guarantee the projected statement is arsenic beardown arsenic it tin beryllium for staff, readers and the aboriginal of wide journalism."

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Tortoise, which was co-founded by the erstwhile Times exertion James Harding, has pledged to clasp the newspaper's absorption connected areas specified arsenic the arts and culture, and said it would put £25m successful it implicit a five-year period.

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

A Scott Trust spokesperson declined to comment.