Journalists at The Guardian will stage their first strike action in over half a century next month in protest at its publisher’s decision to sell The Observer, the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, to a five-year-old start-up.
Sky News has learnt that staff will walk out for two days on December 4 and 5 amid an escalating row over the title’s future.
One insider described the two-day strike as the first in what could be a series of actions by staff.
Sources said on Wednesday that directors of the Scott Trust, the ultimate owner of the Guardian and Observer newspapers, would discuss whether to back the sale to Tortoise Media at a meeting next Monday.
They are expected to support the decision of Guardian Media Group (GMG) management to proceed with the negotiations, with Anna Bateson, the company’s chief executive, having promised to reach a conclusion before Christmas.
The Scott Trust has pledged to retain a small stake in The Observer if the deal goes ahead.
The exclusive discussions with Tortoise Media – which were revealed by Sky News in September – have been made more complex by the apparent emergence of two consortia expressing interest in making a counterbid for The Observer.
One source said that while GMG had been contacted by representatives of two putative investors, they had offered no detail about their underlying backers.
Lord (David) Sainsbury, a member of the supermarket chain’s founding family, has been rumoured for weeks to be involved in one of those possible rival offers.
However, emails to a media enquiries address posted on his website were returned as undeliverable, and it was unclear whether the peer had any interest in owning a stake in The Observer.
Ms Bateson told GMG employees last month that when Tortoise Media – co-founded by former Times editor James Harding – approached it about buying The Observer, “we were already beginning to think about the future of the title, given its financial situation and the fact it is a…
