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Alarm over alleged China ties of Telegraph buyers | Reach hires Australian journalists
And Tiktok removes migrant influencer account after The Sun's front-page coverage
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Welcome to your daily Press Gazette media briefing on Wednesday, 13 August.
More than two years after Lloyds Bank repossessed the Telegraph its ownership remains in limbo.
Abu Dhabi-backed Redbird IMI currently holds the title pending the completion of a deal that would see half of that consortium (Redbird Capital) take ownership of the title. Abu Dhabi-backed IMI is expected to retain a 15% stake, which is allowed under new UK media ownership rules.
But Redbird has to complete the deal, and is understood to be still raising the £500m needed for it to take full ownership of the Telegraph.
Separately, former Spectator editor Fraser Nelson has warned that the £500m Telegraph purchase price is too high to allow for investment in editorial. Writing on Substack, he quotes internal sources saying the annual editorial spend at the Telegraph has already been squeezed from £77m to £73m. He speculates that costs are being squeezed to justify the high purchase price.
Today we also report on Reach’s expansion in Australia to provide more overnight content for UK media brands.
On Press Gazette
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Press freedom groups flag China links of new Telegraph owners
Redbird says editorial independence is at the core of its Telegraph investment.
Reach hiring journalists in Australia to cover UK overnight hours
Expansion follows success from having journalists in UK writing for US brands.
News in brief
Tiktok has removed the account of migrant/influencer "Alexandra420" after being alerted by The Sun about his coverage of crossing the English Channel in a dinghy and encouraging others to do so. (The Sun)
The Society of Editors has welcomed new College of Policing guidance that says forces should consider releasing information about ethnicity and nationality of suspects when they are charged if needed to counter misinformation. (Society of Editors)
Google users in the US and India can now select their "preferred sources" which will mean they can see their chosen websites' articles more frequently in Top Stories. (Google)
Vanity Fair is cutting back on "news aggregation, reviews and trade coverage" and concentrating on entertainment, celebs, culture, money, politics and style under its new editorial director. This includes phasing out business, politics and tech vertical The Hive. (Variety)
Politico management argued in an arbitration hearing about its AI tools that they are not subject to its normal editorial standards because they are not "newsgathering" and they were built by product/engineering teams and not reviewed by editorial staff. (Nieman Lab)
Ex-Axios editor-in-chief Sara Kehaulani Goo has been named president of The Washington Post's new creator network, focused on "building personality-driven content and franchises in topic areas that are of interest to our target audiences" with new commercial opportunities. (The Washington Post)
Sports brand Boardroom will put out a trial print issue and then four magazines in 2026. Co-founder Kevin Durant said there is "more and more of a value put on something in the physical" but it's being seen as useful for marketing more than monetisation. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Footballco's Mundial has released a documentary asking "why is women's football so gay?" to complement its latest quarterly magazine. It said it was the first in a new strategy putting more emphasis on filmmaking to accompany the main theme of every issue. (Mundial)
Shropshire Star rapped for publishing photo of emergency services response to incident at a house. It was unaware at the time what had happened - the death of a baby - and IPSO said there was a "lack of sensitivity" and a breach of privacy rules. (IPSO)