When German media giant Axel Springer bought the Telegraph titles for a whopping £575 million last month, snapping it up from under the nose of the Daily Mail, it was quick to reassure staff that the papers would retain their editorial intelligence.
The Mail had been busy suggesting the potential new German overlords would turn the arch-Tory title into a celebration of the EU, running an article telling readers how Springer “backs a United Europe” and enlisting former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith to rail against “the prospect of a pro-Brussels media giant owning the Telegraph”. The publisher, it warned, required its employees “to sign a written commitment to principles”.
Upon getting regulatory approval for the deal, Springer was at pains to reassure Telegraph staff they could continue to be as crackers as ever, saying that: “Under Axel Springer’s ownership, the Telegraph will benefit from significant investment in its journalistic capabilities, digital infrastructure and international expansion while maintaining the editorial independence and integrity that has defined the publication for nearly 170 years.”
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But if the editorial team still have concerns, they won’t be assuaged by recent goings-on at one of Springer’s existing outlets, with executives at Politico and its owner Springer this week holding a meeting with its journalists following a recent letter from staffers raising concerns about whether its CEO’s political views interfered with Politico’s journalism.
Last week, Politico employees in both Europe and the US sent a letter to new global editor-in-chief Jonathan Greenberger, warning that Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner’s “repeated use of Politico to promote his political agenda” risked “taking on the appearance of editorial slant.”
Staff pointed to two recent comment pieces written by Döpfner: one in March, in which he called on Europe to support the US and Israel in their war with Iran and another last July in which he said European aid to Palestine had funded terrorism, and Europe was on the “wrong side of history” by restricting aid to Israel.
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“Taken together, these actions risk undermining our reputation as an impartial news source,” they wrote in the letter, obtained by the US website Semafor. The signatories asked Döpfner to add a disclaimer to all comment pieces specifying that the author’s views do not represent those of Politico or its staff.
According to Semafor, the Springer executives reiterated the company’s commitment to editorial independence and attempted to reassure staff that Politico’s reporting “coexists” with the company’s stated values, including support for free speech and democracy, the European alliance with the US, and the existence of the state of Israel.
Fortunately, there’s not too much in Döpfner’s view that existing Telegraph staff will find to object with – although it is not yet known where he stands on Gentleman’s Relish, the niche fish spread the paper has been campaigning obsessively to save ever since it was announced its production had ceased.
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