Rolling UK media industry into the sewer thread 2009

So hey, how about the Russian billionaire buying the Evening Standard with the quote "As far as I'm concerned this has nothing to do with making money. There are lots of other ways. This is a good way to waste money"?

"deeper into sewer" surely?

What he says there is pretty incontestable.

Oh, of course, but it's a little depressing for newspapers to become the new football teams surely?

I dunno; if the NME try and pay me £250k a week to come out of retirement I might bite.

Surely it can't be any worse to have newspaper owners who are trying to piss money away than those trying to lol make a profit.

But he's a FORMER MEMBER OF THE KGB!!!

Nobody's perfect

Buying the Evening Standard (or any UK newspaper save maybe the Indy) is a pretty decent shortcut to buying political influence.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Media/Pix/pictures/2001/06/07/Harmsworth_Jonathan2.jpg

And he's a cunt. what's your point?

xpost

that's almost as bad as being Paul Dacre

Just the Evening Standard? Sounds a bit loopy

(beyond the obvious motive in buying that thing in the first place)

Buying the Evening Standard (or any UK newspaper save maybe the Indy) is a pretty decent shortcut to buying political influence.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 15 January 2009 11:56 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Apparently potential board appointees should this dude take over include Blair, Chirac and Gorby. Always forget that the last one is still alive.

Newspapers were never big money-spinners were they? Haven't they always been more about making sure other people crawl and grovel for favors? xpost or what Matt DC said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/russian-billionaire-set-to-buy-evening-standard-1366711.html

Mr Lebedev, 49, is already a media owner in Russia, having founded the news magazine Korrespondent and taken a 49 per cent share in the liberal Moscow-based newspaper Novaya Gazeta which he partly owns with Mikhail Gorbachev. Novaya Gazeta is one of the last media outlets in Russia that is critical of the Kremlin.

The paper continues to report on themes the Kremlin-controlled media ignores, including corruption, human rights abuses in Chechnya and the sinister activities of the FSB, Russia's post-KGB spy agency. Its special correspondent Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in 2006 and few doubt her political enemies arranged her execution. Mr Lebedev has offered $1m for information leading to the arrest of her killer.

This has got to be better than fucking Rothemere.

lol was going to say 1) how is this worse than the status quo 2) non-nationals have often been media barons -- beaverbrook was canadian iirc, then you know, murdoch, conrad black, maxwell.

fair point none of them were ex-kgb.

The more I think about this the more I fail to see the specific wrongness of a newspaper owner not giving a shit about whether the paper makes any money.

In today's market it's probably a good thing.

I won't be happy until he commits a major act of fraud or embezzlement, spying is small time crookery and we like our media barons to be felons of the highest order.

And surely the opposite of the attitude struck by Today's Modern Football Owner.

xpost

"You are right, I did lose $1mn last year, and I expect to lose another $1mn next year. At this rate of loss I will have to close the newspaper in 60 years."

isn't there a quote from citizen kane that is pertinent to all this somehow?

I DON'T KNOW

MUST GOOGLE WAIT A SEC

fair point none of them were ex-kgb

Is that a greater crime than being a Barclay brother?

Can he use his contacts to send Andrew Gilligan to the Gulag?

This thread won't be complete until Alisher Usmanov makes a bid for GQ.

Lebedev was on R4 yesterday talking about the Russia/Ukraine gas dispute, somehow I can't see the Standard devoting chunks of every issue to pulling Putin's pigtails though.

PUTIN IN NEW HOUSE PRICE FALL

"I'LL TRIPLE THE CONGESTION CHARGE" SNEERS VLAD

^^ people liked the whole polonium-poisoning story though. putin-baiting is pretty hot right now and i can see him running with it.

xposts

in the absence of ken they need a new hate-figure.

PUTIN AND HARRIET HARMAN DECLARE WAR ON THE MIDDLE CLASSES

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1104080/You-vote-Russian-PM-Vladimir-Putin-backs-BRITAIN-Sir-Andrew-Lloyd-Webber-steps-Eurovision-campaign.html

^^^great Putin URLs of our time #1

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/01/02/article-1104080-02EDD6C9000005DC-516_468x386.jpg
http://cupofcha.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/rumsfeld_saddam.gif

That's a dude wearing a rubber Putin mask, right?

So hey, how about the Russian billionaire buying the Evening Standard with the quote "As far as I'm concerned this has nothing to do with making money. There are lots of other ways. This is a good way to waste money"?

http://www.moma.org/images/collection/FullSizes/Welles_CitizenKane_2.jpg

The thing I was wondering though, is there a movie that has any resonance with all of this?

Brewster's Millions is the obvious one that comes straight to mind.

kaneslowclap.gif

http://www.shropshirestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/green-green-grass-ratlinghope.jpg

http://www.andycrowe.eu/images/press_gang_images/andybafta.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a4/Press_Gang_-_Juila_Sawalha_caption.jpg

^^^this should be a meme

richard herring over here

When I'm out in London, you know what I wanna hear...

http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/20081103-guardian-sept-08-users-table-1.gif

Hadn't seen these figures before, either. Weird how some of the breakdowns occur: nobody gives a shit about science but environment is right on music's heels?

need a breakdown by writer for the music section.

Ex-KGB spy buys UK paper for £1

Russian ex-KGB agent Alexander Lebedev is to buy the London Evening Standard newspaper for the sum of £1.

Typical tourist getting ripped off - I bought mine for 50p!

^^ this joke will turn up on mock the week and/or the now show.

DMGT chairman Lord Rothermere said the company was "very proud" to have owned the paper.

He said: "It has a long and distinguished history as one of the world's great city newspapers, based on outstanding journalism."

one of the world's great city newspapers, based on outstanding journalism
one of the world's great city newspapers, based on outstanding journalism
one of the world's great city newspapers, based on outstanding journalism
one of the world's great city newspapers, based on outstanding journalism
one of the world's great city newspapers, based on outstanding journalism
one of the world's great city newspapers, based on outstanding journalism
one of the world's great city newspapers, based on outstanding journalism
one of the world's great city newspapers, based on outstanding journalism
one of the world's great city newspapers, based on outstanding journalism

That entire article is full of lols

Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, former editor of the Sunday Telegraph, said the take-over was a sign of "national decline".

He told the BBC: "I think it's one more example that we are no more a serious nation that we allow a serious paper to be taken over in our capital by a Russian oligarch.

"Imagine the French having Le Monde or Le Figaro taken over by a Russian multi-millionaire? It's an illustration of how our national pride has declined."

i tried to find a times article on the standard's purchase by beaverbrook but it was a no-comment paper back then. but i can't imagine he was a much more respectable figure than this guy. perry doesn't 'get' that fleet street has always been for parvenus and crooks.

Sir Peregrine Worsthorne Sir Peregrine Worsthorne Sir Peregrine Worsthorne Sir Peregrine Worsthorne Sir Peregrine Worsthorne Sir Peregrine Worsthorne Sir Peregrine Worsthorne Sir Peregrine Worsthorne Sir Peregrine Worsthorne Sir Peregrine Worsthorne Sir Peregrine Worsthorne Sir Peregrine Worsthorne Sir Peregrine Worsthorne

HE'S A KNOB, HE'S A KNOB IS A KNOB ... oh, it's not a chant. Sorry.

Mr Lebedev has also expressed an interest in buying out other struggling newspapers both in the UK

HOO, really?

rupert murdock is a fine upstanding englisher isnt he

Worsthorne entered the newspaper industry as a sub-editor on the Glasgow Herald in 1946

xpost

he worked for years under the fine upstanding foreigner 'lord' conrad black.

The more I think about this the more I fail to see the specific wrongness of a newspaper owner not giving a shit about whether the paper makes any money

Absolutely. Long arms, deep pockets, BASH ON THE CASH. Be interesting to see if Lebedev sticks to that line when he realises just how much cash a newspaper can cost him, mind.

(Especially because I don't think the Standard has been through anything like the purges that some other papers have; could be wrong about that, but from what I understand most of the DMGT papers were still operating on, er, a "well-resourced" model.)

Tenner says he buys the Indy next.

They're like the Glen Johnson and Geremi of newspapers.

i had to google that.

people were all like 'rothermere will buy the indie' but with them selling the ES perhaps not.

wonder what will happen to the torygraph.

(frankly the indie's brand is so tarnished i don't see a way back for it, but i can see the torygraph working.)

Tenner says he buys the Indy next.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, January 21, 2009 8:43 PM (4 months ago)

OTFM!

From MediaWeek:

Standard owner Lebedev set to buy Independent newspapers

LONDON - Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev, majority owner of the London Evening Standard, is understood to be in advanced talks to buy The Independent and Independent on Sunday.

Such a deal would hand control of two major national UK newspapers to Lebedev, in addition to his acquisition of a 75.1% stake in the Standard in January.

According to sources, senior executives from Independent News & Media (IN&M) have been in discussions with Lebedev's representatives over a possible sale, among several options. According to one source close to the situation, a nominal offer for the two titles has already been tabled and a deal could be finalised by the end of the month.

The two parties have been in discussions over a number of possible deals since the Independent moved into the same Derry Street offices as the London Evening Standard in May, according to sources.

It is thought negotiations with IN&M are so advanced that discussions have already been held over the new management structure for a combined entity.

One source said: "There have been a number of discussions between the two parties, one of which has been over the sale of the Independent and Independent on Sunday to Lebedev."

Denis O'Brien, a 26% shareholder in IN&M, has previously called for executives at the media group to offload the titles. Pre-tax profit at IN&M's UK operations slumped nearly 99% year on year in 2008 to just €200,000, following a drop in circulation and ad revenue.

But sources claim IN&M will not sell the titles until the group has resolved the refinancing of its €220m bond, which expires on 26 June.

A representative for Lebedev Holdings Ltd was unavailable for comment. IN&M and the London Evening Standard declined to comment. The Standard's former owner, Daily Mail & General Trust, which retains 24.9% ownership of the paper, was also unavailable for comment.

http://www.electronicsweekly.com/blogs/gadget-freak/1ApplauseCard.gif

Heard an interview with him on the Guardian Media Weekly podcast a while ago, ostensibly about his Standard purchase, in which he called the Standard "the Independent" once or twice. Seemed like he had something else on his mind ...

Mystic Matt strikes again

puts pay to predictions that the Indy would fold by the end of next year then.

It's kinda the dream situation for a dying paper: Mr don't-give-a-fuck-for-massive-returns-just-want-to-own-a-paper Deep Pockets just trucks up and buys you.

Maybe he'll rehire some subs.