Yorkshire Post owner renews pursuit of Telegraph
The owner of The Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post has said it is the “best qualified” buyer for the Telegraph, even as it revealed plans to rely on artificial intelligence to produce its newspapers.
It said: “The conclusion of [The Telegraph’s] ownership change is still in doubt but the opportunity was in line with both the founding principles of National World – that it would be a consolidator in the sector – and its ability to leverage both its infrastructure to extract significant synergies and its proven management expertise.”
“Our view remains that National World remains the best qualified among the various candidates for such a deal both in terms of industry qualification and also editorial independence, as well as the absence of any competition issues.”
The company, which has a stock market valuation of only £36m, last year became the first suitor to publicly declare an interest in buying The Telegraph after Lloyds Banking Group seized the newspaper and prepared an auction.
The auction process was derailed after RedBird IMI, a private equity fund backed by United Arab Emirates vice president Sheikh Mansour, struck a complex debt deal to take control of The Telegraph and The Spectator magazine for £600m.
However last week the Government announced new laws to ban foreign state influence on British newspapers, effectively blocking the Abu Dhabi-backed bid and raising the prospect of a new auction.
The legislation is yet to be published and RedBird IMI has signalled it will not reveal its next move until it has seen the details.
National World, formed from the ashes of the former Johnston Press publishing group, would represent very different ownership to RedBird IMI, which had planned heavy investment in The Telegraph. It is closely focused on controlling costs as its portfolio of regional titles declines in print.
The company reported that its turnover increased 5pc to £88.4m last year, while its pre-tax profit increased to £9.7m.
Its executive chairman David Montgomery, 75, said National World plans to produce half of its newspapers with artificial intelligence (AI) by the end of the year.
Such moves are highly controversial among journalists because of fundamental questions over the reliability of information served up by the emerging technology, which is known for “hallucinating” falsehoods, providing incorrect attribution and apparent plagiarism.
The Telegraph does not publish text or images generated by AI, except to illustrate articles about AI itself.
National World said it was currently producing around 200 automated print pages per week using AI. It is aiming to increase this to roughly half of all pages for its weekly titles by the end of 2024.
Mr Montgomery said: “Amidst further consolidation plus cost efficiency and productivity enhancements the pace of the operating model change has accelerated with initiatives embedded in both the heritage portfolio and newly acquired assets.”
Other bidders who expressed an interest in the auction process last year include the GB News co-owner Sir Paul Marshall and the publisher of The Daily Mail, as well as the Belgian newspaper group Mediahuis and German rival Axel Springer.
