Journalists on the Guardian and the Observer newspapers in Britain started a 48-hour strike on Wednesday over plans to promote The Observer, the nation’s oldest-running Sunday publication, to a digital media start-up.
Workers picketed exterior their newsroom in London to protest the proposed sale to Tortoise Media, arguing it had been “rushed via” with out the assist of the workers.
It is the primary strike in additional than 50 years for Guardian News & Media, which publishes each papers. The Observer has run in print since 1791. The plans to promote it got here to mild in September and have been a shock to journalists, who at the moment are calling for the corporate to pause sale negotiations and contemplate alternate options.
The deal is almost performed and could possibly be introduced quickly, in accordance with an individual briefed on the talks who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of the main points have been personal. The Scott Trust, the proprietor of each publications, needed to make sure that it could stay one of many largest shareholders with a say in The Observer’s editorial path, a difficulty that was anticipated to be resolved shortly, the particular person stated.
“It can’t be proper to go forward with a rushed sale when journalists haven’t been consulted and we don’t perceive the logic for this,” stated Sonia Sodha, a columnist for The Observer who was on the picket line Wednesday morning. “We suppose it places each Observer and Guardian journalism in danger.”
The Guardian purchased The Observer in 1993. Executives have stated the sale would permit the corporate to concentrate on worldwide growth.
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