The event, organised by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and industry title, Press Gazette, 'was designed to show the title's owner, Guardian Media Group, that its plans for the paper are being closely monitored', the NUJ said today.
NUJ officials pledged to hold ballots for industrial action if any union members are threatened with compulsory redundancy as a result of cutbacks at the Observer or the the Guardian.
The meeting was initially scheduled to campaign for the paper's survival following industry reports that a 'Sunday Guardian' could replace the title, but fighting further job cuts became the new message, in light of GNM's statement last week.
"The key issue is whether the Observer retains its proper levels of funding and editorial intent. If the Observer essentially becomes a glorified Guardian on Sunday that might make the Guardian's voice as part of the left wing media slightly louder, but it will deprive the liberal media of an entire other voice. I say two voices are better than one," said the comedian, actor and Observer columnist David Mitchell, who chaired the event.
"Most of us who work on the paper consider ourselves liberal. But we are not liberal when it comes to compulsory redundancies, and any notice of these will trigger an automatic ballot for industrial action," said the joint father of the newly-merged Guardian and Observer chapel, Brian Williams.
Current and former contributors to the paper who also made an appearance included Katharine Whitehorn, Philip French, Barry Norman and Victoria Coren.
Whitehorn said the paper was one of the first to give women 'a real voice' to write as themselves and it must not be allowed to change beyond recognition, according to a post on the NUJ Left site.
The journalists Henry Porter, John Humphrys and Francis Wheen, and actor Simon Callow were among the audience.In an update on its ongoing strategic review, GNM last week said it would develop its current weekend offering and introduce a greater degree of integration between the editorial teams of the Guardian and Observer.
However jobs are still at risk at GNM: earlier in the year the company announced 50 editorial redundancies as part of an attempt to reduce costs by £10 million, and last week GNM's managing director Tim Brooks, told staff in a memo posted on the Guardian's intranet that more jobs could be at risk.
GNM was losing £100,000 a day - a rate that cannot be afforded by its parent company, Guardian Media Group, he said.
GNM editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger yesterday responded to criticism made by a commenter on Roy Greenslade's blog that the group's digital spend had forced redundancies.
"Since 2002/3 our spending on Guardian.co.uk [operational and capital expenditure] has exceeded revenue by just £20 million. There's a crisis in the industry, and the Guardian is no more immune than anyone else, but it's a myth that we've ploughed lunatic sums into digital," Rusbridger wrote.
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