Guardian Media Group told staff it was in exclusive negotiations with Tortoise after being approached with an offer that was significant enough to look at in more detail.
The Guardian Media Group chief executive, Anna Bateson, said: “This is an exciting strategic opportunity for the Guardian Media Group. It provides a chance to build the Observer’s future position with a significant investment and allow the Guardian to focus on its growth strategy to be more global, more digital and more reader-funded.”
Tortoise was launched in 2019 by James Harding, the former editor of the London Times and former director of news at the BBC; and the former US ambassador to the UK Matthew Barzun. “Like its many, many loyal readers, we admire the strength and heart of the Observer’s reporting, we prize its original, unbiddable thinking and we love it for its passions: food, music, film and art. George Orwell described the Observer as ‘the enemy of nonsense’; we’re excited to show readers, old and new, that it still is.”