A row over unpaid debts has resulted in The Daily (and Sunday) Telegraph, as well as The Spectator magazine, being put up for sale, according to reports. The titles, considered to be the most conservative among Britain’s mainstream publications (however low the bar is set), have been owned by the Barclay family for just shy of 20 years, but its members have been removed as directors due to a longstanding debt.
A spokesman for the family told The Times that “speculation about the business entering administration is unfounded and irresponsible,” though the initial Sky News report had already ruled this out. (Succeeding coverage has been less certain.) Other papers have highlighted that the sale is not a reflection of the performance of either The Spectator or the Telegraph titles. Instead, Lloyds Banking Group is lining up the launch of an auction, which would be worth around £600 million, over the approach of the Barclay family to repaying a loan dating back more than a decade.
The prestige of the titles means a sale would, as Sky News put it, “kickstart one of the most hotly contested media auctions in Britain for years.” The Guardian added that the resulting deal “promises to reshape the media landscape.” British political blog Guido Fawkes has already touted former UKIP donor Aaron Banks as a potentially interested buyer, as well as businessmen Peter Hargreaves and Peter Cruddas.
It added that the Barclay family “aren’t going down without a fight.” This followed a report, from Sky News again, that the family has launched a “last-ditch” bid to maintain its control. City Editor Mark Kleinman wrote that the offer “would have entailed the bank writing off a portion of the roughly £1 billion it is owed.” Other details of the proposal—and of the likelihood a sale can be resisted—remain “unclear.”
