Germany's Axel Springer makes swoop to bag UK's Telegraph
· DWThe Berlin-based media giant Axel Springer says it is buying the UK newspaper Daily Telegraph after a protracted search for a new owner. If successful, the plan is to "turbocharge" expansion into the United States.
Berlin-based media group Axel Springer on Friday said it had agreed to buy Britain's historic Telegraph newspaper outfit for 575 million pounds (roughly €665 million, $770 million), the company said.
The deal — which must still be approved by relevant authorities — could end a lengthy saga over the fate of the Telegraph Media Group, which publishes the 171-year-old, right-leaning Daily Telegraph as well as its Sunday sister paper.
What do we know about the deal to buy the Telegraph?
Springer wants to acquire the Telegraph Media Group (TMG) from investor RedBird IMI, a consortium backed by US and Emirati interests. The Telegraph, nicknamed the "Torygraph" for its political leanings, is one of Britain's oldest and most influential newspapers.
Both sides said the deal would preserve the integrity of the long-standing media brand while creating new opportunities for growth and expansion into additional markets.
Axel Springer said it would invest in the group "to enable it to become the leading center-right media outlet in the English-speaking world" seeking to "turbocharge" expansion into the US market.
"More than 20 years ago, we tried to acquire The Telegraph and did not succeed. Now our dream comes true," Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner said.
"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," Döpfner said. He stressed that editorial independence was "sacrosanct."
Axel Springer already owns a host of household name titles. They include the mass-circulation Bild tabloid and Welt newspaper, as well as the Business Insider and Politico media outlets.
Why was the Telegraph for sale?
The hunt for a new owner began in June 2023, when Lloyds Banking Group effectively repossessed the Telegraph because longtime owners the Barclay family had fallen into arrears on some 1.2 billion pounds worth of debts secured against the newspaper group.
Although RedBird IMI took control by paying off a 600 million pound loan owed to Lloyds, the titles remained in limbo as the UK moved to block foreign state involvement in national newspapers.
US investment firm RedBird Capital Partners then tried to secure the deal with Abu Dhabi-backed IMI taking a minority position, but this collapsed in November 2025.
While the owner of the right-leaning Daily Mail later made a 500 million-pound offer, the UK government ordered it be investigated over concerns about the impact the sale would have on the "plurality of views" in Britain's media.
British hedge fund investor Paul Marshall bought right-wing news magazine The Spectator, which had also belonged to the Barclay family, separately in 2024. Marshall, the owner of right-wing broadcaster GB News and the right-of-center news and opinion website Unherd, had also made an earlier attempt to buy the TMG.
Edited by: Wesley Rahn