For a moment, we were back in the late 80s, that dizzy period when the print unions were broken and the internet was a distant dream and new newspapers were popping up all over the place. Except the excitement this spring wasn’t over a new title, but a relaunch of an old one. Yes, it was The Observer, founded in 1791, and now grabbing enough attention for its first edition under new ownership to gain the incoming editor-in-chief James Harding star billing on Radio 4’s Broadcasting House, for all the world as if papers still mattered.

The BBC’s devotion to our oldest liberal flag bearer was touching, though it has always sought to treat papers with respect, perhaps out of a misplaced hope that they will return the favour. Sadly, there was precious little goodwill elsewhere, for the first edition came after a protracted squabble. Many Observer staff did not fancy new ownership and signed up for redundancy. The Guardian was accused of passing on an ailing paper simply to avoid the embarrassment of closing it itself. And why was Harding, boss of the new owner Tortoise Media, so desperate to have the Sunday title?

We can understand why Observer journalists were cross to learn that they were to be cast off, but they never liked their owner anyway. The Guardian bought The Observer in 1993, paying a reputed £26million to gazump The Independent, which had planned to own liberal Sundays by putting it together with the Independent on Sunday. The marriage soon proved unhappy. Observer journalists didn’t want to be bossed by The Guardian, and Guardian journalists resented subsidising The Observer.

Would The Guardian have shut down The Observer if Tortoise hadn’t offered to take it? The Observer contributed £3.4million to Guardian revenues in 2024, but that tells us little without breaking down the allocation of production costs between the titles. If The Guardian did want an exit, it hasn’t got one. It now has seats on the Tortoise board and is putting £5million into the paper.

Then what about Harding, the charming, well-connected former editor of The Times and sometime head of news at the BBC, where some colleagues felt he showed more interest in appearing on air himself than in their programmes? Since Tortoise Media launched in 2019 with a promise to celebrate “slow journalism”, it has turned from long reads to well researched, perhaps under-appreciated, investigative podcasts. The company is reported to have lost £3.8million last year and more than £20million since its launch. Contentiously, it has sought revenue from corporate events, offering limited explanation of the funders.

Does that mean The Observer is now to be bankrolled by pariah capitalists? It wouldn’t be the first time. The British corporate raider “Tiny” Rowland owned it for 10 years from 1983 and used it to further his business campaign against the Harrods owner, Mohamed Fayed.

Newspaper publishing is a rough game. Titles are bought and sold above the heads of the hired hands who write them. Owners don’t always bear scrutiny. The prize is clear: to be the liberal cheerleader with global reach when liberal cheerleading is in short supply. The question is whether the £25million Tortoise has promised to invest – £5million of it coming from The Guardian – is enough to get there. The cynical believe it would cost four times that. The paper currently sells about 110,000 copies a week. The business plan envisages finding three digital subscribers for each print reader who disappears. The title, now with the benefit of its own website, aims to break even by 2027 and reach more than 170,000 paying readers by 2029. For now, it is seeking to pull off that difficult trick of presenting a face that is original and exciting enough to attract new readers and traditional and familiar enough to reassure old ones.

The future will be tough. It’s one thing to impress new readers, another to make them pay. Hardest of all is to persuade the promiscuous reader to abandon an existing relationship and come to you for good. But we shall have none of the negativity that so often infects our trade. The industry has talked itself down enough. All who continue to embrace the romance of journalism must surely celebrate The Observer’s renaissance. A modest craft has set sail on stormy seas. We are witnessing an act of faith, a moving symbol of journalistic hope.

KF