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Thursday 25th January: New investigation into Telegraph takeover
Good morning! Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Chris.
Someone is probably pitching a Succession-type TV show about the Barclay family’s struggle to retain ownership of the Telegraph as we speak. It’d be a terrible show, full of characters with nothing to them but dull self-interest, but there have at least been enough twists and turns in the tale to fill a few seasons of a show.
The Guardian is reporting that a last-minute change to the structure of RedBird IMI — the UAE-backed group chaired by former CNN chief Jeff Zucker — has thrown the potential takeover into a tailspin. The culture secretary is reportedly minded to begin a new investigation regarding the impact of the group taking over the Telegraph and Spectator.
Apparently “RedBird IMI has maintained that it would remain a ‘passive investor’ and would not ‘exert any control’ over the Telegraph or Spectator once it assumes ownership”. Incidentally, have you seen this lovely bridge I have for sale?
Some phenomenal context in here for a lot of the news we’ve been reporting on in this newsletter over the past few months (including the story directly below this one (and this one we didn’t have room for)). Admittedly this article reads in part like an ‘in memoriam’ section during the Oscars, taking a look at all the bad media news out of the US — but it also provides some crucial insight into why all the chickens have come home to roost. Spoilers: it’s because of how slowly traditional media companies adapted to digital publishing and subscriptions.
G/O Media has been slowly climbing the tiers of publishing villains, with the closure of Jezebel and whispers of disinterest in its portfolio. The latter appears to have been borne out here, as the publisher is now looking to sell some titles like Gizmodo and my beloved The Onion, one of the few satirical ‘news’ sites out there that actually has some teeth.
What does the ‘post-traffic era of publishing’ mean for you? If you have any thoughts please do share them on our community forum!
This fourth slot in the newsletter is rapidly becoming the dedicated AI-for-publishers update. Wired has taken a look at how US publications are reacting to the increasing number of AI bots that crawl them for training purposes. What’s interesting — though unsurprising for some reason — is that right-wing media mostly doesn’t care.
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