The Daily and Sunday Telegraph newspapers and the Spectator magazine are going up for sale after Barclay family lost control of the titles’ parent company in a row over unpaid debts reportedly totalling £1 billion. Lloyds Banking Group has put B.UK, a Bermuda-based entity which ultimately controls the right-wing titles, into receivership, with Aidan Barclay and his brother Howard, sons of the late Sir David Barclay, removed from the Telegraph Media Group board. David and his brother Frederick Barclay paid £665 million for the newspapers in 2004. Who will buy it now? Potential bidders include rival media group Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT); German publisher Axel Springer, which owns the Bild and Die Welt newspapers; a high net worth Tory party donor perhaps. According to the Times, former editor-in-chief William Lewis is also in talks to secure backing for a bid.
From the Tortoise archive: Barclay v Barclay
Photograph Alan Davidson/Shutterstock