Green tycoon Dale Vince: I’m ready to buy The Observer

Dale Vince, the renewable energy tycoon, has confirmed his interest in buying The Observer from Guardian Media Group (GMG) if the planned sale of the title to James Harding’s Tortoise Media collapses.
Vince, who founded the green energy supplier Ecotricity and who has given more than £5 million to the Labour Party, said that he would hold The Observer in a trust to safeguard its editorial independence. Vince has an estimated fortune of £100 million.
He said there needed to be “greater media plurality in Britain”.
“We’ve already got too many right-wing media barons (often tax exiles) controlling what people read and hear and ultimately believe. Out of that concern I’ve expressed an interest in the sale of The Observer and discussed the situation with the GMG,” he said in a statement to Press Gazette.
“I understand talks with Tortoise are at an advanced stage and in an exclusive period — I’ve confirmed that should there be a problem concluding that deal I would like to enter negotiations and would be interested in the idea of holding the title in a trust — as currently is the case with the Scott Trust, the ultimate owner of The Observer.”
He did not reveal any further details of how much he would offer for the newspaper.
GMG said it had not received bids containing any substantive detail from any party other than Tortoise Media.
The Scott Trust, the £1.3 billion fund that owns GMG, which owns The Guardian and The Observer, had been expected to meet on Monday but this is understood to have been postponed.
Tortoise was founded by James Harding, a former editor of The Times and director of BBC News, in 2018 as a “slow news” digital start-up. It is currently in exclusive talks to acquire The Observer. Tortoise made losses of £4.6 million in 2022.
It has pledged to invest £25 million into The Observer over the next five years.
However, the deal has proved controversial among the title’s staff and former editors. Paul Webster, who retired this month after 28 years at the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, said the proposed sale would “severely damage the reputation” of the Scott Trust.
He said the sale was based on two false premises — that the poor state of The Observer’s finances threatened the future of its sister paper The Guardian, and that Tortoise had the resources to sustain it.
GMG staff who are members of the National Union of Journalists voted in favour of holding two strikes next month over the deal.