The sale of the Telegraph saga goes on.
The sale of the Telegraph saga goes on.
Dovid Efune, the British-born publisher of the online-only New York Sun, is vowing to press ahead with his bid to buy the Conservative newspaper, despite a rival deal that appears to give control to a UAE-backed firm.
Efune acquired what was a nearly defunct New York Sun five years ago. Since taking over, he has expanded the Sun’s reporting beyond New York, with a strong presence in Washington as well as in Europe and Israel. The title gained the attention of Donald Trump, who regularly posts its articles on Truth Social, which has helped bolster subscriptions.
But Efune has risen to prominence since joining the race for the Telegraph.
Appearing on Sky News recently, the publisher declared that his “British bid for the Telegraph is alive and well, and not going anywhere.”
He dismissed reports of a finalised sale to RedBird IMI, a US-UAE joint venture, as premature, adding: “If the history of the Telegraph’s ownership saga teaches us anything, it’s that the ownership of the Telegraph and, frankly, any other crown jewel of British public life, will not be determined by means of a press release.”
Efune entered the bidding in late 2023 after submitting the highest second-round offer. A self-described admirer of the Telegraph’s “values-based, principled and constitutionalist” journalism, he has cast himself as a defender of British media independence, arguing that the final decision should involve Parliament, the paper’s staff, and its readership.
“The British public will yet have their say via their elected representatives, the Telegraph’s staff and the Telegraph’s readers will have their say, as will the rest of the British press,” he said.
That message, however, sits awkwardly alongside Efune’s history of inflammatory political commentary. In a series of posts on X, he has claimed Israel would “decapitate” Iran’s leadership through “targeted strikes and close quarter assassinations.”
In a speech in 2023 in New York, he said that when it comes to the Israel-Hamas conflict there is a need to “fight with every report and headline”.
Such remarks sparked concern among Telegraph staff about possible editorial influence.
“We are out of the frying pan into the fire,” one insider commented, adding his tweets are “not the behaviour you want to see from a newspaper proprietor. It compromises everybody by association.”
Efune’s defiant position comes just days after RedBird IMI announced an agreement in principle to take a majority stake in the Telegraph from IMI, the UAE’s state-backed media investment arm. RedBird founder Gerry Cardinale aims to become the controlling shareholder, with IMI retaining a passive stake of up to 15%.
That deal is now possible under a new UK law announced on May 15, which allows state-owned investors, including sovereign wealth funds, to hold up to 15% of British newspaper companies. The move raises the threshold from a previously proposed 5% cap, introduced in response to the backlash against RedBird IMI’s original £600 million bid in 2024, fronted by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, owner of Manchester City FC.
Still, uncertainty lingers over how much cumulative foreign state ownership will be allowed, with peers in the House of Lords warning “where will it end?”
With both bids mired in political and editorial controversy, the future of the Telegraph, Britain’s Conservative mouthpiece, which has endorsed the party at every general election since 1945, remains as turbulent and uncertain than ever.
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