Why British newspapers are still in demand: New owners surround The Telegraph and Observer

The physical disappearance of newspapers from Britain’s daily commute is one of the most obvious signs of the declining power of print media.

However, each day there are still at least nine titles to choose from on newsstands.

When titles threaten to disappear, there is never a shortage of aspiring media moguls willing to take the helm.

A long-running dispute over the future ownership of the Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph titles has reached a critical stage. Exclusive talks with Dovid Efune, owner of the New York Sun, expire this week.

Late help has arrived for the US-backed bid with two prominent British figures – former chancellor and You Gov founder Nadhim Zahawi and British-Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Mansour – reported by the Financial Times to be in “advanced” talks. ” to join the American consortium.

At the other end of the political spectrum, Scott Trust, owner of The Guardian and Observer, must decide whether to go ahead with the sale of the Observer to the slow-moving news website Tortoise Media.

The decision comes amid a vote in favor of strike action against the deal by colleagues at the Guardian and Observer.

The Observer is in reasonable health, with a print circulation of 100,000 and made a profit of £3m in the last financial year.

The days of ‘It’s the sun that won it’ – the totemic headline following John Major’s victory in the 1992 election – may be over. However, newspapers continue to set the agenda and can have a volcanic influence on events.

The mirror revelations of Downing Street ‘parties’ during the pandemic were a nail in the coffin of Boris Johnson’s government.

A series of scoops and periodic revelations from the Sunday Times, the Sun and the Daily Mail (joined by the media) about Keir Starmer’s gifts and those of his colleagues turned a triumphant entry into Downing Street into scrambled eggs.

The row between the press and the government has deepened over Labour’s poorly received tax rise budget.

The opportunity to make a difference in national events still makes newspaper ownership an attractive prospect.

It may not be a trend yet. But a different generation of owners is emerging, several of them deeply immersed in the opportunities technology offers.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, who has unlimited resources, is busy looking to revitalize the Washington Post in the United States after the previous owners, the Meyer-Graham family, foundered.

The Ochs-Sulzberger dynasty, which has controlled the New York Times for generations, escaped the ignominy of former BBC boss Mark Thompson.

Its digital approach turned around the group’s finances, which have since been boosted by the ‘Gray Lady”s acquisitions of online sports bible The Athletic and the addictive word game Wordle.

Digital is the way forward in the UK. The Independent, which emerged after Rupert Murdoch’s print revolution in Wapping almost four decades ago, has been revitalized online and made a healthy £3.5m profit in the last 15 months.

Its adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), to incorporate foreign languages, has helped attract 5.7 million registered users and reduce dependence on advertising revenue.

The prolonged uncertainty over the Telegraph’s ownership could soon come to an end.

Early contenders including private equity outfit RedBird, backed by Abu Dhabi funds, and DMGT (owner of the Mail titles) are no longer in contention.

Hedge fund tycoon Paul Marshall swooped to buy the Spectator from the Telegraph group for £100m and quickly installed mercurial former cabinet minister Michael Gove as editor. For the moment, Marshall has faded away as a potential buyer of Telegraph shares.

Almost out of nowhere, New York-based digital publisher Efune, backed by significant US trade funding, has emerged as the most likely new owner with a bid initially thought to be worth up to £550m.

Industry speculation suggests that this figure is considered highly unlikely to be reached.

The Manchester-born owner of the New York Sun has shown consummate skill in taking defunct titles and turning them on their head.

He began by transforming one of the few Yiddish newspapers, Algemeiner, widely read in the Charedi Jewish community, into an English-language online title reporting on Jewish issues and Israel.

It was from this small beginning that he took control of the New York Sun, one of the Big Apple’s oldest newspaper brands first published in 1833, which had all but disappeared by the time Efune landed in 2020-21.

He brought the newspaper’s title, once part of the Pulitzer publishing empire, online,

giving New Yorkers and everyone else a more conservative alternative to the famously liberal New York Times.

Efune’s funding reportedly comes from investment firms Oaktree and Hudson Bay Capital and the family office of American philanthropist Michael Lefell.

Former Telegraph owner Conrad Black, who was forced to resign amid allegations of financial irregularities two decades ago, is editor of the New York Sun.

The prospective buyer comes from a respected rabbinical family and is the nephew of the Kalms family, who founded electronics retailer Dixons, now known as Currys.

Efune’s journalism experience would suggest a smart, right-leaning, pro-Israel digital future. Efune promises to cover “lucid and consequential issues of the day” and describes himself as a “lifelong journalist.”

As with all newspaper ownership transfers, any deal will have to clear public interest hurdles from media watchdog Ofcom and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy.

Union hostility between Guardian and Observer staff over the proposal to sell the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper to online start-up Tortoise is a profound hurdle.

However, there is a determination on the part of Tortoise founder James Harding, former editor of the Times and BBC News, to get the job done, and he is promising £25m of new investment in the title.

Unraveling the Guardian’s Obs, where large chunks of the newspaper including City and Sport are jointly produced, will not be easy. Production arrangements are also shared.

Harding has brought together an eclectic mix of financiers for the deal, including South African tycoon Gary Lubner, formerly of Autoglass, through his ‘This Day’ philanthropic foundation.

His ambition is also reportedly supported by US asset manager Standard Investment, run by David Millstone and David Winter. He has stakes in digital media startups Puck, Air Mail and publishing house Spiegel & Grau.

Historic print titles may be under financial pressure and looking for a long-term online future.

But there is no shortage of funding, much of it American (as in the case of Premier League football clubs) ready to colonize the future of digital media.

In this universe, traditional titles such as the Telegraph and Observer have become the new hotbeds of busy bees seeking to revolutionize media finances, improve performance and gain a voice in UK geopolitical and national events.