After a torturous 17 months of uncertainty, the Daily Telegraph looks set to have a new owner. The frontrunner, who has now entered exclusive talks to buy the newspaper, is the 39-year-old media businessman Dovid Efune, who was born in England but has built most of his media career in the United States, including with the online newspaper the New York Sun. But, given Efune’s existing political ties, staff are already “very concerned” about what a change of proprietor could mean for the 169-year-old business.
He is the last bidder standing after veteran newsman David Montgomery, former Tory Chairman Nadhim Zahawi’s consortium and new Spectator owner Paul Marshall were knocked out or left the process. The £550m deal could be completed in as little as six weeks once due diligence has been carried out and Ofcom and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy sign it off.
As part of his bid, Efune is already making a show of saying the right things to staff and readers. In a statement released on Monday, he said: “The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph symbolise the very best of world-class, independent journalism and a commitment to relentlessly seeking the public interest. As a lifelong newsman – variably as reporter, columnist, editor and now publisher – I believe strongly that these values, in general, are fundamental to the advancement of any journalistic enterprise. It’s with these principles that the Telegraph is best positioned for even greater success going forward.”
Efune was born in Manchester but lives in New York, where he was editor of the Jewish publication, Algemeiner Journal. Three years ago he brought the New York Sun out of hibernation, running it as a conservative digital-only product. Alarm bells are already ringing at the Telegraph that Efune’s experience at the Sun may convince him to ditch the print product.
The major concern is whether Efune may attempt to overly influence editorial policy. Soon after taking over the Sun, Efune told Jewish Insider: “The Sun is a general-interest paper, but it’s also a Zionist newspaper.” He also recently told an audience that in the Israel-Hamas conflict there is a need to “fight with every report and headline”. One Telegraph insider told me: “That quote has really worried people here. Our job isn’t to fight with every report and headline – it’s to report the news.”
There are additional calls for greater clarity about who exactly is backing Efune’s bid. The Financial Times has reported Efune is in talks with equity investors including Stand Together, a group founded by ultra conservative American billionaire Charles Koch, who was listed among America’s “top climate villains” by the Guardian in 2021. Greenpeace research has shown that between 1997 and 2018, Koch Family Foundations spent $145,555,197 on groups that have attacked climate change science. Other backers are believed to include Lord Michael Farmer, who has also backed Efune’s New York Sun and is a founder of GB News.
Chris Evans has edited the Telegraph since 2014, but insiders are doubtful that he will stay in post for long after the change of owner. One possible successor could be Fraser Nelson, whose impeccable Tory contacts and ability to build subscriptions at the Spectator made him a popular editor before his recent replacement by Michael Gove. Former Express editor Gary Jones could also be in the frame, while others have suggested there could be a role for Times associate editor Daniel Finkelstein.
And what of a shift in the Telegraph’s position on domestic affairs? One person it looks likely there will be a role for is commentator Julie Burchill, who has become a regular writer for the New York Sun. Only this week Burchill was extensively quoted in a Sun editorial about the UK Tory leadership contest: “Beautiful, bold Mrs. Badenoch is going to look mighty appealing to a jaded electorate in four years time [sic].” Perhaps a new editorial line for the Telegraph too?
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We were promised a battle for the soul of the Conservative Party. The Tory leadership contest looks more like two bald men fighting over a comb. Lacking understanding of their party’s electoral rejection or any grand vision for the future, Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick desperately scrabble for the Reform comb. For a pair endlessly banging on about the metropolitan elite’s obsession with identity politics, they don’t half spend a lot of time talking about… identity politics. That aside, it’s hard to identify many actual policies.
It’s down to Tory grassroots to choose the winner. The party doesn’t publish how many members it has; it could be as few as 130,000, almost entirely older and affluent – the last patrons of print newspapers. Which explains why, I’m told, Badenoch was on the phone during Tory conference berating editors of the Sun and Daily Telegraph for their underwhelming coverage of her. Perhaps such a tongue-lashing was why the Sun ignored all mention of her in a recent leader column that concluded: “Oh, how we could do with some of BoJo’s energy and optimism.”
The Telegraph is neutral. In one of those 400-word editorials that say nothing, it dithered: “Both Ms Badenoch and Mr Jenrick have shown early signs they are aware of the scale of the task facing the next Conservative government. They must now show that they are able to tackle it.” There’s no such equivocation at the Spectator, where Badenoch mentor Michael Gove marked his first day as editor with an article on its website headlined: “The case for Kemi Badenoch is now overwhelming.” GB News is following suit, accusing Jenrick of “siding with Strasbourg” (no greater sin) after it unearthed comments he made ahead of the Brexit referendum – even though he campaigned for Remain.
Elsewhere, the Mail and Express, which enthusiastically backed Liz Truss, are eager to avoid making the same mistake. One senior executive tells me: “Neither of them is a great option.” And that’s for the right-wing media, never mind the country.
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The Evening Standard’s latest annual report shows how desperate things had become before its daily print edition was jettisoned. Pre-tax losses for the year to October 2023 grew to £20.6m (up more than £4m on the previous year). Owner Evgeny Lebedev may have deep pockets, but even he knew it had to stop. Is the new weekly London Standard – available at selected Tube stations, gyms and coffee shops – just a vanity project for Lebedev? Judging by the great pile of unnoticed copies at Oxford Street Station, I think so. Questions are being asked inside the Standard’s depleted offices as to how editor Dylan Jones, once at GQ magazine, can continue to rake in one of Fleet Street’s largest salaries despite overseeing a shrinking empire.
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This article appears in the 16 Oct 2024 issue of the New Statesman, Make or Break