Eyebrows are raised again over at troubled Observer media purchaser Tortoise. Insiders are grumbling about the impact of the merger on editorial content, including a curious podcast on proscribed group Palestine Action that appeared last month. It ran under the title “the government is at risk of losing support over Palestine Action”…
Addressing the activities of the now banned terrorist organisation, Tortoise hack Jon Ungoed Thomas commented:
“We’ve now seen 700 people, more than 700 people arrested, some of who are very fine members, upstanding members, of our community. People who’ve worked as justices of the peace, people who’ve received OBE’s. So, the government has a problem. What’s going to happen when those people go through the courts? Because some of those people have been arrested under very serious offences, which will need to go to a crown court and a jury… the government really hasn’t carried a lot of people in the country with them on this, because they haven’t convinced people, they haven’t provided the evidence, that this is a terrorist organisation to the satisfaction of a large number of people.”
Sources say insiders grumbled about the episode, questioning whether the (Labour friendly) outlet was wise to run a line questioning Starmer’s decision to proscribe the group. Lefty on lefty fire comes at you hard…
Meanwhile, Tortoise itself is on the road to profitability, generating revenue from an extensive programme of – er- commercial partnerships including with some very large and well-known corporates. Doing corporate business is loathed by its newsroom, packed with lefty reporters who hate big business…
Insiders say the “shambolic” merger has been overshadowed by the “ironic” commercial reality. Observer writers were previously immune from commercial matters, they were able to rely on the super-wealthy Scott Trust endowment fund, so could just write nonsense all day without making any money…
The Observer has recycled an old Tortoise Media podcast as its lead story amid ructions at the James Harding-owned newspaper over how to make money. Fears are starting to be confirmed that the Observer is now just ‘Tortoise 2’…
Co-conspirators familiar with Tortoise’s podcast offering may remember one on the Unite Birmingham scandal from 2022 – whose content has been repurposed by the same author in a written story which led the Observer website for the last day. Guido hears from a newsroom insider there is “panic as we can’t get enough real stories for the weekly cycle.” Better dig into the Tortoise archives…
Meanwhile Guido hears an early focus from the paper on audio has died down in favour of “sensational investigations.” That follows the viral Saltpath story from a few weeks ago and the Neil Gaiman content from before that. Insiders say the Gaiman audio content made cash through advertisements while the Saltpath exposé drove traffic to the Observer which it is still unable to monetise. Tough for some…
An app is unbelievably still under construction at what media sources say is a “huge cost… running late and over budget.” A dodgy cartoon isn’t the worst of the Observer’s woes by far…
Another nugget from Tom Baldwin’s interview with Starmer is raising eyebrows at the highest levels in Labour today. Starmer essentially blames the despicable arson attacks on his properties for the comms crisis that followed his ‘island of strangers’ immigration speech…
The piece relates:
“…emphasising he is not using the firebomb attack as an excuse and doesn’t blame his advisers or anyone else except himself for these mistakes, Starmer says he should have read through the speech properly and “held it up to the light a bit more”.
Starmer draws a parallel between the timing of the attacks and the meltdown that followed his speech. If a state had any connection to those attacks, Starmer’s admission here would be seen as a big win by hostile actors, by his own admission he took his eye off the ball…
Three men have so far been charged with those attacks and will face trial in April of next year. All three have indicated they deny the charges. No details are known as to the motive and no relevant details have been released by the authorities. Starmer’s interview includes multiple admissions that he is finding his role difficult and pressured. Is Keir Starmer ok?
Keir Starmer has told The Observer he “deeply regrets” his “island of strangers” migration speech and insisted he didn’t even know it echoed the words of Enoch Powell. And neither, apparently, did his speechwriters…
Having forced his ministers to contort themselves into impossible positions trying to defend the speech in the first place, Starmer has now claimed it was a terrible idea and he was just a slave to his own teleprompter:
“I wouldn’t have used those words if I had known they were, or even would be interpreted as an echo of Powell. I had no idea – and my speechwriters didn’t know either. But that particular phrase – no – it wasn’t right. I’ll give you the honest truth: I deeply regret using it…
He delivered that speech just over six weeks ago. Not quite a world record for Starmer U-turns, but close…
Chaos continues at James Harding’s new media empire following the launch of the under-new-ownership Observer. Tortoise Media suffering as well…
After technical, print, and staffing issues Guido hears from insiders that a lack of trained journalists means editors, commercial crew, and producers are writing copy for the paper. They are padding out pages. Probably achieves the same quality…
Live events can now be attended for free which has removed another membership benefit for Tortoise. The assured money-maker is currently the audio offering which Observer sources complain has been neglected by Harding since he took on his “new shiny toy.” One newsroom insider says: “No one is able to come up with a marketing idea that works, or makes sense.” The work flow is said to have degenerated despite staff having now been forced into the office five days a week and remote working strongly discouraged. Another week doing the opposite of what Hitler would have done…
The Observer has deployed another stinker in its second Sunday print outing. A blurred front page…
The wraparound front page picture of women with Farage was extremely low resolution and the focal point – Farage – is extended onto the back page. This was followed by strange multicolouration inside the paper itself. Did all the layout and photo editors quit?
Guido hears from Observer insiders that print subscriptions are so far significantly lower than expected – the plan is to give physical Observer editions to the fewer-than-10,000 Tortoise Media subscribers. Expect to see the Observer and Tortoise come even closer together. Tie two sinking ships to one another…
An Observer source tells Guido: “No one with any marketing nous remains. No one with any digital experience.” Is the lefty new media activist site Tortoise about to sink the 200 year old observer?
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”