Zucker to land at Telegraph
November 22, 2023
Former president of CNN Jeff Zucker is poised to become an unlikely mogul of a British press baron as he nears an agreement to gain control of The Daily Telegraph, the right-leaning UK broadsheet. Sister publication, The Spectator, a conservative magazine and one of Britain’s more prestigious media properties, would also come under the deal disclosed this week.
Zucker, 58, was criticised by liberals who blamed him for airing former President Donald Trump’s unfiltered rallies, and later attacked by conservatives for what they deemed an anti-Trump bias in the network’s coverage. CNN forced out Zucker last year after he failed to disclose a relationship with a colleague, after which ratings and staff morale plummeted.
The Telegraph went up for auction this year after its owners, the Barclay family, defaulted on a loan and it looks possible the business could go into liquidation. The auction was paused after Zucker’s proposal, which relies on roughly £1.1 billion (€1.2bn), from RedBird IMI, the media venture company he founded last year, and a major Abu Dhabi-based investment fund. The UK government has signalled the bid would attract a ‘fit and proper person’ test.
The vision for The Telegraph includes a potential expansion into the US, according to NYT.
RedBird IMI is a joint venture between RedBird Capital, a private-equity firm, and a private investment fund run by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, an Emirati royal.