The New European is closing a £500,000 funding round at a £5 million valuation. It boasts a number of rich, big name remainer celebrity backers like Lionel Barber (ex-FT) and Mark Thompson (ex-BBC). They reckon the investment will help it make a profit next year after consistently losing hundreds of thousands a year. Guido is not convinced this will be a profitable investment.
It seems fashionable for rich remainers to own their own loss-making publication, the hardline-centrist to soft-left, loss-making media space is well-funded and crowded; Prospect, Tortoise, Byline Times, New Statesman and The New European. They somehow give themselves multi-million valuations and raise investment on the back of it. Would you buy shares in a magazine on the back of a recommendation from Alastair Campbell? It seems “mission” investors will.
Over on the right-of-centre side of the political media, The Spectator booked over £2 million in profits last year, Guido is pleased to say we did well too. Are we doing something wrong consistently making actual profits?
Lionel Barber and Roula Khalaf arrive on editorial floor this morning <Succession theme fade out> pic.twitter.com/PzYvzsTPUn
— Janine Gibson (@janinegibson) November 12, 2019
Dear colleagues,
The Financial Times today announces the appointment of Roula Khalaf as editor. She succeeds Lionel Barber, who has held the position since 2005 and will step down at the beginning of 2020.
Khalaf has been the FT’s deputy editor since 2016, overseeing a range of newsroom initiatives and award-winning editorial projects and leading a global network of over 100 foreign correspondents. She recently launched Trade Secrets, a new content vertical focused on global trade, and has been a driver of diversity initiatives in the newsroom, in particular those focused on increasing the FT’s female readership and talent pool.
Commenting on the appointment, Tsuneo Kita, chairman of Nikkei, the FT’s proprietor said: “I am delighted that Roula Khalaf has agreed to take the position of editor. I have full confidence that she will continue the FT’s mission to deliver quality journalism without fear and without favour, inspire and lead a team of the most talented journalists and pursue the FT’s new agenda covering business, finance, economics and world affairs.
“Roula’s 24-year FT career, including her tenure as deputy editor, has proven her integrity, determination and sound judgment. We look forward to working closely with her to deepen our global media alliance.”
Just in case it was in any doubt what FT editor Lionel Barber thinks his job is… he has endorsed this letter from swivel-eyed ultra-Remainer and former Economist editor Bill Emmott to his paper highlighting “the FT’s solemn duty to pour scorn” on Brexit:
“In accord with its slogan “Without fear and without favour”, the FT could not have done otherwise, for there is no good case for leaving the world’s largest and deepest free trade area, whose regulations have been shown by the OECD to do far less economic harm than domestic rules, which is not protectionist towards the rest of the world, and which gives Britain a louder voice and greater heft in global affairs than it can have on its own… So to pour scorn on a terrible strategic mistake is nothing less than the FT’s solemn duty.”
Earning that Legion Dis’Honneur…
“What we do is report the facts” says @lionelbarber
“No, you are the Daily Remainer” says Michael Portillo#bbctw #brexit pic.twitter.com/7T2aLjjgnE
— BBC This Week (@bbcthisweek) May 4, 2017
FT editor Lionel Barber unimpressed with these truth bullets from Michael Portillo on This Week…
Lionel Barber tells Prosperity UK Conference…
“FT values this initiative to find constructive solutions, the UK having clearly decided to leave EU.”
The financial pages seem full of good news for Brexit Britain, City AM splashes with “Bounceback“, the Wall Street Journal contemplates a Brexit boom for manufacturers and the pound recovering. Over at the FT they have managed to acknowledge the possibilty that things might not be quite as terrible as they predicted with a sceptical bottom of the front page headline “busy factories fuel pro-Brexit MPs claims of Treasury scaremongering”. This is countered by a claim, based on a self-selecting voodoo poll, that “graduate recruitment has slumped”. Lionel’s Légion d’Honneur for services to European unity remains untarnished…
