German media giant buys UK’s top conservative newspaper

Germany’s Axel Springer SE, the owner of Bild, Politico, and Business Insider, has announced that it will buy out The Telegraph for £575 million ($771 million). The deal would unite two of Europe’s most influential conservative brands, and sink efforts from the owner of its tabloid rival, the Daily Mail, to purchase the center-right newspaper.

In a press release on Friday, Axel Springer CEO Mathias Dopfner said that he would preserve Telegraph Media Group’s (TMG) editorial independence, develop its use of AI, and invest in the outlet’s expansion into the US market.

“Axel Springer will back an investment program in TMG to grow and expand the business to enable it to become the leading center-right media outlet in the English-speaking world,” he said.

The Telegraph’s values closely align with Axel Springer’s support for Israel and close ties between Europe and the US, Bloomberg cited Dopfner as saying in a recent internal memo to Politico staff.

The German media powerhouse agreed to the deal with RedBird IMI, a joint venture between US-based private-equity firm Redbird and global media company International Media Investments, owned by the UAE’s Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the ruler of Dubai.

RedBird IMI paid off £600 million ($760 million) of TMG’s loans in 2023, effectively taking control of the group. However, its attempts at ownership had been unsuccessful amid UK concerns about Middle Eastern state involvement in a staple British newspaper.

In November, an attempt by the owners of conservative tabloid Daily Mail to buy The Telegraph stalled after Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy ordered a regulatory probe over concerns that the merger of the two right-leaning news heavyweights would affect the “plurality of views” in the UK.

The purchase would mark Dopfner’s first buyout in British media.

Washington has increasingly accused European governments of suppressing conservative views in news and social media.

US President Donald Trump’s recent national security strategy accused the EU of pursuing policies of “censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition,” and of undermining member states’ “political liberty and sovereignty.”

Last week, right-wing opposition party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has faced a crackdown from the German government, accused the EU of trying to interfere in Hungarian parliamentary elections against the party of conservative Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.