Journalists of the British daily Guardian (The Guardian) and its weekly edition Observer started a strike today, for the first time in 50 years, due to the sale of the weekend edition of the paper.
The Guardian Media Group (GMG), the parent company of the newspaper of the same name, announced in mid-September that it is in talks to sell the Observer, the oldest weekly publication in the world, to Tortoise Media, an information portal founded in 2019.
Members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) union began a 48-hour strike against the project.
The strike coincides with the 233rd anniversary of the Observer's first publication, the union said.
The union is asking for a break in exclusive negotiations to allow more time to find other solutions and to determine that the decisions made are in the best interest of the two publications, said union general secretary Laura Davison.
"The massive strike vote shows the willingness of journalists to publicly express their concerns about the future of the publication," she added.
"The Observer occupies a unique and important place in public life and our members look forward to the next chapter in its history," Davison said.
The Observer was founded in 1791 and was bought by the Guardian Media Group in 1993. It is the oldest weekly newspaper in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records.
The company Tortos Media was started by James Harding (James), former editor-in-chief of The Times and BBC (BBC) with Matthew Barzun (Matthew Barzun), former US ambassador to Great Britain.
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