Jeff Zucker accuses rival Telegraph bidders of ‘throwing mud’, offers UK assurances
Ousted CNN chief Jeff Zucker lashed out at rival bidders for a conservative British publication and assured the UK government he would guarantee the newspaper’s independence, according to a report.
Earlier this week, Zucker’s Abu Dhabi-backed RedBird IMI group agreed to pay around $750 million to the Barclay family (owners of the Telegraph newspaper and Spectator magazine) that would allow them to pay off their nearly $1,400 debt. million dollars with Lloyds Banking Group.
Zucker questioned the motivation of rival media CEOs, whose outlets were warning about the threat to press freedom from their proposed deal while also preparing their own offers.
“There is a reason why people throw mud and throw darts… [it’s] because they want to own these assets,” Zucker told the Financial Times on Friday. “And they have their own media resources to try to harm us.”
Other bidders for the Telegraph include hedge fund billionaire and GB News co-owner Paul Marshall, as well as two other newspaper owners, Rupert Murdoch’s News UK and Lord Rothermere’s DMGT.
Zucker said some of the “rock throwers tried to approach us before to see if we would work with them on this offer. So let’s be clear about this. “We were doing well in the eyes of our competitors before we tried to do this on our own.”
The sale to Zucker, which has been widely seen as a move by CNN to the left, raised concerns among conservatives in Parliament about the future editorial direction of the Telegraph, which has traditionally been aligned with their party.
Some MPs and rival media outlets also warned that Zucker’s links to Abu Dhabi could “pose a risk to the Telegraph’s editorial independence and threaten national interests,” the FT reported.
Zucker said he would “make sure that [the UK government] We understand that we are prepared to make commitments that should calm everyone’s concerns,” according to the Financial Times.
Zucker, chief executive of RedBird IMI, promised to create an “editorial advisory board” that would defend the independence of both the Telegraph magazine and Spectator magazine, adding that there are no plans to change the management of the editorial teams of either publication. .
“We are confident that with those measures there should be no question about the editorial independence of the Telegraph or Spectator,” said Zucker, who ran CNN, as well as the “Today” show and NBC News in the United States.
He continued: “I’ve spent 35 years running or supervising news organizations, and there’s nothing I understand better than editorial independence. “I have staked my reputation and my legacy on not allowing editorial interference.”
Redbird IMI is a joint venture between the US private equity firm led by former Goldman Sachs partner Gerry Cardinale and Zucker, along with International Media Investments, controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who also owns the Manchester City football club.
Zucker said IMI would have no say in the management of its businesses and would only participate “in the entry and exit” of a transaction as an investor in the fund.
IMI would “remain a totally passive investor” and “would not exercise any control over the Telegraph or the Spectator,” Zucker said, adding that he sees “real potential” to establish the Telegraph as a “more global media brand.”
Lloyds seized the publications in June from the Barclay brothers, Sir David and Sir Frederick, who bought the titles from Conrad Black in 2004 for $1.3 billion.
The bank launched an auction for the business, which includes the Telegraph newspaper and Spectator magazine, after the Barclay family failed to pay debts of almost $1.4 billion.
RedBird IMI disrupted the auction by agreeing to provide financing to Barclays to repay the loans “in full” and then take over the media group. Lloyds is now assessing RedBird IMI’s proposal.
If Lloyds accepts the proposal, the deal will mark the end of the Barclay family’s ownership of the Telegraph, a conservative newspaper founded in 1855, and The Spectator, which has been published weekly since 1828.
Cardinale, founder of RedBird Capital, told the Financial Times that “as a private equity investor, we are not focused on influencing editorial or content selection.”
Cardinale has a reputation for partnering with celebrities who want to build their own businesses. “We don’t tell Ben Affleck or Matt Damon what movies to make at Artists Equity; and we don’t tell LeBron James and Maverick Carter what projects to take on at The SpringHill Company,” Cardinale said, referring to other RedBird investments.
