Murdoch circles as Fleet Street jewels up for sale
London | The world’s media magnates and billionaires are circling a rare chance to buy themselves a Fleet Street trophy, with two venerable Tory titles now officially on the sales block.
Lloyds Banking Group has formally kicked off the sale process for The Daily Telegraph, a conservative broadsheet newspaper, and The Spectator, a centre-right salon-room magazine on politics and culture.
Rupert Murdoch is among those rumoured to be interested in adding “The Spectator” to his trophy cabinet. New York Times
The Financial Times has suggested that more than 20 bidders might join the auction, which will have several stages and last until early next year. Rupert Murdoch is among those rumoured to be interested in adding The Spectator to his trophy cabinet.
The interested bidders will reportedly receive detailed “teaser” documents this week, allowing them to pitch bids that the FT said could be in the vicinity of £500 million ($960 million) for the Telegraph and more than £70 million for The Spectator.
The sale was forced on the erstwhile owners, the reclusive and fractious Barclay family – former owners of the Ritz hotel – after Lloyds called time on a protracted dispute over £1 billion of outstanding debt.
The sale has the potential to significantly shake up Britain’s media landscape. The Telegraph is a significant mouthpiece for the conservative side of politics, and has traditionally been a go-to outlet for the Royal Family and the military and security establishment.
Its opinion pages have become gloomier and more trenchant in the past few years, particularly since the Downing Street defenestration of the paper’s beloved Brexiteer and former star columnist, Boris Johnson.
One of the interested bidders is hedge fund
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