History
Tortoise Media was announced on Kickstarter in 2018, where it raised more than £500,000. Permanent invitations to ThinkIns and Discussion Lates were part of higher-tier Kickstarter reward packages. It also received private investment. [1] Its website went live in April 2019. [8]
Writing for The Guardian in 2018, Emily Bell said that Tortoise drew from ideas tried by The Guardian, Axios , Vox and Quartz . She said there was a trend of increased involvement of private wealth in the journalism industry, comparing Tortoise and its wealthy, well-connected founders and backers to Marc Benioff's purchase of Time and Jeff Bezos's purchase of The Washington Post . She also said that Tortoise's financial strength allowed it to attract high-profile journalists. [1] The company received the Innovation of the Year award from the British Journalism Awards in 2019. [9]
In September 2024 it was reported that Tortoise had approached the Guardian Media Group—proprietor of The Guardian and The Observer—with an offer to purchase The Observer for an undisclosed price. [10] Guardian and Observer journalists voted to strike on 4 and 5 December 2024 in protest over a sale that they said would betray the commitment of the Scott Trust—owner of the Guardian Media Group—to the Observer. [11]
As the strike was taking place, the Scott Trust agreed to go through with the sale, [12] which occurred later that month. [6]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
