Workers have begun a 48-hour walkout, the first in 50 years for the outlet, over a proposal to sell The Observer to Tortoise Media, a digital media start-up.

Journalists at the Guardian and sister publication the Observer are holding a two-day strike in protest at the proposed sale of the Sunday newspaper to Tortoise Media. The first strike at the Guardian in more than 50 years is taking place across Wednesday and Thursday (4 and 5 December).

Nearly 500 journalists have walked out of the Guardian and its sister paper, the Observer, to protest what they see as a betrayal of the paper's values: the planned sale of the Observer to a startup.

Celebrities including Grayson Perry and Anne Robinson have joined strikers on the picket line at The Guardian to protest against the planned sale of The Observer. Hundreds of journalists began a 48-hour walkout this morning as staff revolt against plans to sell the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper to Tortoise,

The Observer is The Guardian’s sister paper, which comes out weekly on Sundays. It emerged earlier this year that the Scott Trust is considering a sale of The Observer to the relatively nascent Tortoise Media, which was founded in 2019 by editor James Harding as a longform journalism and podcast platform.