Sale of the Daily Telegraph and Spectator - Tories up in arms

Nevertheless with an election looming there is an opportunity to influence the vote.

MaizieD I agree that in the past the media probably did control public perception and opinion to a degree. However the opinions of the elderly DT readers are not so highly respected in the UK I suggest.
With the expansion of higher education over the last 40 years plus a plethora of internet sites touting ‘news’ and opinion, I think mainstream media has less social impact and influence. There’s also the rise of the well paid influencer which has been a puzzle to me.
The Telegraph doesn’t have a large circulation?
By expansion of higher education I imply a rise in critical thinking and not blind acceptance of a newspaper‘a headlines. Everyone must know the inherent bias in media sources by now.

ronib

MaizieD yes wealth might be power. But I can’t get my head around the fact that I don’t think power resides with Telegraph readers! I shall shut up.

No, power rests with the people who own the media and control what it prints so as to influence the thinking of the people who read it.

If you don't believe me look at that ridiculous thread about the National Trust 'calendars'.

As I said upthread, there’s more than meets the eye. They wouldn’t do it otherwise.

MaizieD yes wealth might be power. But I can’t get my head around the fact that I don’t think power resides with Telegraph readers! I shall shut up.

ronib

Vintagewhine why would Abu Dhabi want to influence this demographic if it loans over a billion? I don’t know if the revenue from The Spectator and Telegraph will even cover the monthly interest. Looks like a risky investment .

Don't worry, ronib, there will be something in there somewhere for them even if it's not immediately obvious to us non-wealthy mortals.

Wealth is Power.

Vintagewhine why would Abu Dhabi want to influence this demographic if it loans over a billion? I don’t know if the revenue from The Spectator and Telegraph will even cover the monthly interest. Looks like a risky investment .

ronib

Vintagewhine the readership of the Telegraph is under 1.5 million a day and the Uk population is 67 million. The demographic of Telegraph readers is older, more affluent, male and social classes ABC apparently. I don’t know why anyone would want to target this group particularly? But then I suffer from thinking a billion pounds is a lot of money when to some, it’s clearly loose change.

The Times, Telegraph and Guardian are considered the big three newspapers, only the Telegraph is currently for sale. It's not about making money but since going behind a paywall the Telegraph has increased it's paid subscribers and it's well defined readership is an advantage not a disadvantage.

Aren’t they just providing funding to pay off Lloyds, as opposed to buying? However, that could give them influence. More to it than meets the eye I think.

Not sure how Abu Dhabi can be prevented from taking over the DT. Precedent shows that Murdoch, Lebedev and others but I am too busy cooking to list own The Sun, The Times and so on. Therefore what grounds could be used to stop sale to Abu Dhabi?

Why would Abu Dhabi be interested in taking over the DT?

Looking for somewhere to put a spare £billion or so?

I don't think that our press should have any foreign or non-dom ownership but, unfortunately, that seems to be where the money is.

I am an Annual subscriber and have been for many years. These days many of the Columnists seem to be in their 20s to me! I am an old fogey and think the the DT has changed irrevocably and my 62 year old son often carries on st the dinner table about the decline and I agree with him that The Times is now superior to the DT but I cannot bring myself to cancel the Telegraph despite the eye watering amount an annual subscription. Why would Abu Dhabi be interested in taking over the DT?

Vintagewhine the readership of the Telegraph is under 1.5 million a day and the Uk population is 67 million. The demographic of Telegraph readers is older, more affluent, male and social classes ABC apparently. I don’t know why anyone would want to target this group particularly? But then I suffer from thinking a billion pounds is a lot of money when to some, it’s clearly loose change.

ronib

I don’t see that this sale will give a commercial return for the outlay involved. Can’t imagine that Abu Dhabi investors give money away so wonder what the motivation is behind this deal?

Influence!

Not so sure the younger demographic will go for subscription model? Time will tell.

I suspect more will migrate to subscription only. For me it’s a question of trusting the source of the information, though of course newspapers can and do make mistakes.

GSM online newspapers may not be commercially viable in the long term? So much more information is available from other online sources these days. It will be interesting to see how the media adapts to changing habits.

So you think online newspapers will cease to exist Grantanow?

I doubt print media will exist in a couple of decades.

Danny Kruger reportedly queried the size of the loan with suggestions that neither income from DT nor Spectator could support it. My hunch exactly.

Haven’t the Barclays secured funding from the Middle East to pay off Lloyds?

The Telegraph group is a bit player in the greater scheme of UK news media ownership. Better that it is sold to a bidder that isn’t already trying to get a monopoly in my opinion.
pressgazette.co.uk/media_business/dmgt-daily-mail-telegraph-acquisition-market-share/

I don’t see that this sale will give a commercial return for the outlay involved. Can’t imagine that Abu Dhabi investors give money away so wonder what the motivation is behind this deal?

Hasn’t Abu Dhabi got a bad human rights record? Freedom of speech is an issue there I think.

No problem with the sale of the Evening Standard to a former KGB agent, though.

I'm sure that if the Abdu Dhabi ruling family gave generous donations to the tory party it would be fine.

The last I saw, though, the Barclay family were trying to raise the money to buy the titles back.