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The EU-hating Telegraph titles have been acquired not simply by a German company – Axel Springer SE – but by one that was strongly opposed to Brexit.
The company already owns Die Welt, Bild, Business Insider, Politico, and the bestselling Polish red-top Fakt, which is closely modelled on Bild. However, the ironies are nothing like as acute as some initially supposed, and it appears to be clear that the new owner does not intend to change the newspaper’s political and ideological orientation.
As Springer’s part-owner and CEO Mathias Döpfner stated when the takeover deal was announced, the German company was founded in 1946, “inspired by the tradition of Fleet Street”. Vouchsafing that he regarded the Telegraph as an “institution of quality British journalism”, he continued:
“We want to grow the Telegraph, while preserving its distinctive character and legacy, to help it become the most read and intellectually inspiring centre-right media outlet in the English-speaking world. The Telegraph stands for freedom, personal responsibility, democratic values, and a belief in open societies and market economies. These convictions closely align with our Axel Springer essential values.”
These values, to which employees of the company’s German titles have to sign up, are laid out in the company’s constitution and include advocating “the alliance between the United States of America and Europe”; supporting “the right of existence of the State of Israel”; and opposing “all forms of antisemitism”. Indeed, the company has flown the Israeli flag over its headquarters since 7 October 2023.
The fact that Döpfner offered such a high price for the Telegraph Media Group (TMG) titles – £575 million, when by common consent a more realistic price would have been £350 million – raises the question of why he wants them so badly, particularly as many critics would no longer regard the titles as representing either “quality British journalism” or “centre-right opinion”.
Of course, as the history of the national press in Britain demonstrates all too clearly, newspaper proprietors are perfectly prepared to take an economic hit on their titles as long as they can use these as a megaphone for their views and to boost their other economic interests. Döpfner’s admiration for “the tradition of Fleet Street” would appear to put him in the same camp.
His stress on the future growth of the Telegraph titles in the “English-speaking world” suggests very strongly that he wants to increase its transatlantic reach, and this is confirmed by his promise that “Axel Springer will turbocharge the expansion of TMG into the United States market, leveraging the significant expertise of its media brands Politico and Business Insider”.
Part of the plan, presumably, is to appeal to those American readers for whom the main news networks and papers such as The New York Times are too liberal.
However, with CBS and The Washington Post increasingly kowtowing to Donald Trump, Döpfner may discover that market segment is now better catered for on the home front.
Particularly for older Telegraph readers of the Sir Herbert Gussett tendency, there may be a limit to how many more articles they want to read by American commentators and politicians (along with their British hangers-on) berating the UK as a hellhole of crime, decline, and Islamic terrorism.
One also wonders what such readers – not to mention Telegraph journalists – will make of Döpfner’s claim that “TMG will be able to access Axel Springer’s successful track record in developing journalism in a digital and AI world, as well as commercial expertise in areas including digital advertising, subscriptions and events”.
In this respect, it is worth remembering that, in 2023, the conglomerate decided against bidding for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph because its focus was on a “digital first, digital only” acquisition strategy.
As Döpfner stated at the time:
“We want to be faster, more agile, and less bureaucratic. We are digital and transatlantic. But we need to strengthen the role of technology as a critical success factor. We need to understand and harness the power of artificial intelligence faster and better than our competitors. We need to become even more market, customer, and revenue-focused than before. These priorities must be our focus if we want to be the leading transatlantic media company for digital journalism and related business models.”
But what can we expect of the political stance of the Telegraph titles under Döpfner?
Jane Martinson has noted that “his reputation has prompted fears among some that he will seek to promote the wilder excesses of the newspaper’s most recent journalism – an anti-migrant stance that would work in the market he most wants to conquer, the US”.
To put it bluntly, will he want to accommodate the likes of Allison Pearson and Allister Heath?
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Reputation
Döpfner has expressed admiration for the “tradition of Fleet Street”, and this of course includes a great deal of hostility to the left.
Such hostility was also glaringly evident in the flagship Springer title, Bild-Zeitung, in the 1960s and 1970s.
The sheer intensity of what can only be called the company’s hatred of the left was frighteningly captured in Heinrich Böll’s 1972 novel The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, which concerns the victimisation of a supposed ‘subversive’ by the fictional Die Zeitung, which is very clearly modelled on Bild-Zeitung. This was made into a film by Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta and is also referenced in the title of the ITV drama The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, which is another story (this time a true one) about press persecution of an entirely innocent person.
And in 1977 the investigative journalist Günter Wallraff (as ‘Hans Esser’) worked undercover as an editor for Bild in Hanover, describing his unpleasant experiences in Der Aufmacher and Zeugen der Anklage. They also feature in his edited collection The Undesirable Journalist and served as the basis for the 1990 film The Man Inside. What Walraff found at Bild on the part of his colleagues was a contempt for humanity, a lack of respect for people’s privacy and widespread unethical behaviour. Mic Wright quotes him as admitting that “I believe it’s the most difficult role I’ve ever played. Compared to that, backbreaking, dirty work in a factory on an assembly line is almost a relief. Because with this filth you’re exposed to here, you have no distance, no defence mechanisms”.
All a long time ago, Springer’s defenders will no doubt immediately retort. But the company’s more recent history, and in particular the political and ideological leanings of its CEO, suggest more than a few disturbing continuities with the past. That these were actually aired in December 2024 by, er, the Telegraph, which Springer had long had in its sights, strongly suggests that there were those in the TMG who did not always think of it as the ideal owner. Alan Rusbridger has helpfully identified the main articles (which can be found here, here and here) and also drawn attention to a revealing Guardian piece as well.
Taken together, these reveal that just before Christmas 2024, Döpfner encouraged Musk to tweet in support of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a party officially classified as ‘r