Former British cabinet minister Tony Benn used to say that he read the Guardian newspaper to learn what to think and the Daily Telegraph to know what was going on in the world.
Much has changed since the 1970s era of news media but the prospective sale of the Daily Telegraph to Axel Springer is a milestone moment.
For most of this decade the Telegraph has been caught up in the consequences of a previous owner’s tumble into financial collapse.
It has been given stability of a security over the business offered by RedBird IMI, the media conglomerate based in New York and backed by an Abu Dhabi firm.
The security provided for the future of the UK newspaper and its sister publication, The Spectator at a critical time in 2023. It was not converted to full ownership after an intervention by British parliament and in the meantime a series of talks have been held to try to secure new ownership.
The deal announced on Friday comes in the same week as Banijay Entertainment and All3Media agreed a deal to merge their operations. Banijay's Marco Bassetti is to be installed as chief executive with All3's Jane Turton as deputy in the creation of an almost $4 billion business by revenue.
In a joint appearance last year at a Royal Television Society conference the pair presaged the forces changing thier industry. According to reports Ms Turton, CEO of All3Media, noted her firm’s shows such as The Traitors and Gogglebox had more and more audience on certain platforms. “Netflix is now our single biggest buyer [with] new customers spending real money on high-quality content," she said. "A lot of what has been happening over the last 10 years has been positive.”
This means a growing business, more employees and a bigger roster of shows, all the benefits of well-capitalised ownership boosting revenues.
Reliance on big performers such as MasterChef, owned by Mr Bassetti, was not enough nor was development based on a "pitch on a piece of paper”, he said.
New streams were need such as taking the shows to live audiences, something that again required the resources of visionary backers to come to fruition. Which allowed the creators to leverage the concept.
“This new division is creating live events based on our existing IP [intellectual property]," he told the conference in October.
A very different changing media landscape in streaming and TV production but the principal owners of the businesses, including IMI are moving quickly to ensure the future of the enterprise.
The two major media deals this week place Redbird IMI at the heart of the evolving media industry trends. They also show the strength of Abu Dhabi-based IMI as a major powerbroker across industry players. Be it entertainment production or news landscape, these two agreements reflect investment success and the global media industry benefiting from rapid dealmaking.
In the news sector there is the challenge of AI amid the already rapid digital rebirth of the industry. This revolution puts the onus on fast decisions and good use of capital and is something that is also present in looking at the future of the Telegraph brand.
Axel Springer hinted at these incentives in announcing it was pushing forward with its interest in the Telegraph on Friday.
It is worth noting that the chief executive of the German business, Mathias Dopfner, has already issued a manifesto for what a sale would mean for the title in a new epoch.
“To be the owner of this institution of quality British journalism is a privilege and a duty,” he said. “We want to grow The Telegraph, while preserving its distinctive character and legacy, to help it become the most read and intellectually inspiring centre-right media outlet in the English-speaking world.”
Mr Dopfner also pointed out that Axel Springer had a long-standing interest in The Telegraph as a media asset. He pointed out that his organisation was a bidder more than twenty years ago when The Telegraph changed hand from the Canadian Lord Black to the Barclay family, the people who lost control to their bank in 2023.
Mr Dopfner also invoked the founder of the family run business the eponymous Axel Springer, who started the press operations in post-war Germany in the British-run segment of the country. Mr Springer he said was an acolyte of the British media at a time when The Telegraph was an industry leader. “Axel Springer was founded in 1946 under a British press Licence,” he said. “He built his company inspired by the tradition of Fleet Street.”
Acknowledging the uncertainty felt by the newsroom under a long interregnum, the new owners hope to assure all corners that there is a future built on investment, both in technology and its journalism. “We believe that the best way to safeguard that is through financial and economic success,” the statement went on. “We see massive growth potential for TMG.”
The British government will have to have its say on the transaction. The Labour Party government inherited a newly passed law that placed restrictions on foreign state influence through ownership of newspapers. Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, had placed a limit of 15 per cent on the shareholder role. Ms Nandy said the Telegraph was an “important institution” and she would act in the public interest.
RedBird IMI had been prepared to sell its security in the title to the Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere last year but that bid was referred to the regulators over competition concerns over its Mail title. On Friday RedBird IMI, which is part owned by the owners of this newspaper, said it was working with UK officials to ensure the necessary approvals and saw the proposal as compliant with the ownership laws. “Following a swift and efficient negotiation, we are pleased to have reached an agreement with Axel Springer to purchase RedBird IMI’s interest in the Daily Telegraph newspaper,” it said. “With the strength of their commercial offer and a straightforward regulatory path to ownership we believe that Axel Springer is well placed to take the Telegraph forward into its next chapter.”
Another well known reference to the Telegraph came in the television show Yes Minister, which said Telegraph was written for readers who thought the country was run by another nation. Changing times means that new ownership now has the chance to transform the readership once again while keeping faith with that spirit so admired by Mr Springer decades ago.
