Harding spoke to Global’s The News Agents earlier today…
‘Yes. So, we’ve committed to making sure that The Observer remains in print for the foreseeable future. We’ve been talking about 5, 10 years, who knows what happens beyond there? But the point is that for years, The Observer has held a really special place in the heart of journalists. So, historically, this was the paper that George Orwell, who used to write for it, called the enemy of nonsense.
‘It was the paper that great photographers like Don McCullin and Jane Bone took pictures for. It was the place that had championed, when many other people neglected him, Nelson Mandela. It was a paper that represented what newspapers really stood for, but for years, it’s been just in print and its journalism carried on The Guardian. Our plan is we keep it in print every Sunday, but we now give it a digital life that runs through the week.’ – James Harding
Editor and Co-Founder of Tortoise Media James Harding has told The News Agents podcast that ‘it feels very much like a new day’ now the deal has been done for Tortoise Media to acquire The Observer, adding under the thirty years of the Sunday paper under The Guardian ownership, ‘what you’ve seen is the very slow but very significant decline in the print sale of The Observer and without a digital identity, a digital brand of its own.’
‘Our view is that The Guardian is a brilliant paper, and it does a brilliant job and has an amazing 24/7 news service. The Observer is going to build out its own network of foreign correspondents and contributors and editors, but what we’re trying to do is something different. We’re definitely not going to be in the 24/7 breaking news business. Our job is to try and say, let’s try and make sense of the news…
‘I think all news organisations are changing. We’re sitting here in a podcast studio, and let’s face it, podcasts and the discussion of the news has fundamentally changed the way in which people consume it. The very last thing we should be doing is sitting around saying, you know, what we’re going to do is we’re going to do exactly what’s always been done before. What we do see, though, is a world in which people have taken some of the great names in news, take The New Yorker or The Atlantic…
‘There are loads of those that have said, we can still reimagine what exists in print, make it more relevant and insightful in a world where essentially, information and news is commoditised and coming at you every which way and at the same time alongside that print product, build out something that’s digital, and serve people, essentially, wherever they want to get it, whether it’s in print or on screen, can get the best journalism that’s out there.’ – James Harding
Speaking to podcast hosts Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel, James also told The News Agents podcast that he is ‘committed to making sure that The Observer remains in print for the foreseeable future’ and has said ‘there’s been an incredible amount on this that has been wildly untrue’ regarding the investors who have funded the sale of the paper to Tortoise Media.
‘I hope that in a year, two years’ time, firstly, you at The News Agents are going to sitting around saying, we’re talking about a lot of Observer stories. Look at the original investigations. We are talking about a lot of the ideas and points of view that are coming out of The Observer.
‘Look at the independent thinking. We love the way in which their podcasts, their long form, narrative journalism, is reaching us, both as pieces of storytelling as podcasts, but also that we can read them digitally and in print. And through all of that, we’ve created a sustainable future for The Observer. It’s growing its audience, so there are a group of people who are reading it in print, but really excitingly, there’s a next generation of people who love it.
‘And actually, I think, as I hope you can hear, there’s something exceptionally special about The Observer, and that journalists who are going to be drawn to it and say, we want to be a part of this. We want to write for it, we want to report for it, we want to share our ideas in it. And I hope that in a year or twos time, you’re looking at it going, okay, well, they really did renew The Observer.’ – James Harding
Listen to the full interview on The News Agents podcast on Global Player now.
