Hedge fund boss Paul Marshall has acquired The Spectator for £100mn, pledging to keep the conservative magazine as an independent part of his growing British media empire.
The deal, completed on Tuesday, marks the end of one of the most protracted takeover battles in UK media history, with the long-term ownership of the magazine in question since the Barclay family lost control of their media assets more than a year ago.
The Spectator’s acquisition by the self-styled “classical liberal” co-owner of the rightwing television channel GB News, who is still in the running to buy the magazine’s former stablemate The Telegraph, bolsters Marshall’s position as one of the UK’s most influential right-leaning media barons.
Marshall said his company would “be a fine custodian, building on The Spectator’s values and successful track record”, adding: “The plan is . . . to make good previous under-investment in one of the world’s great titles.”
The deal has sparked fears among the title’s typically Conservative readership over the future of a much cherished weekly magazine, which started its current run in 1828, but traces its origins as far back as 1711.
A concern for centrist Spectator readers would be if Marshall took as a template for the magazine the rightwing coverage of GB News.
One Tory MP and former Cabinet minister said the prospect of Marshall taking over was “appalling” and “terrifying”. Marshall’s agenda, he said, “was one of destroying the Conservative party and having a new form of Trumpism in the UK”.
“Look at GB News, which led to such an upturn in the Reform vote,” the minister said. “They buy into this populism stuff, buy into voters being told what they want to hear.”
Marshall declined to comment on the Tory MP’s view.
Spectator chair Andrew Neil, who said last year that hedge funds should not be allowed to own newspapers because of potential conflicts of interest, posted on X on Tuesday that he was resigning “with immediate effect”.
Addressing magazine staff, he added: “My greatest regret is that I have not been able to find you a new home guaranteed to nurture the unique chemistry of The Spectator . . . I cannot tell if the new owners will have the same reverence for editorial independence since they have not shared their thinking.”
Freddie Sayers, chief executive of Old Queen Street Media, the Marshall entity that is acquiring the title, said that a new board, expected to be drawn from the ranks of Conservative politicians, would oversee the weekly magazine.
Sayers will also become the publisher of UnHerd, Marshall’s digital media group, and The Spectator. He said that the two titles would remain separate, with independent editorial and governance structures.
“We really do understand it and venerate it, and will treat it with appropriate respect,” he said of The Spectator.
Marshall has ambitious overseas and online growth plans for the title.
He sees the media industry as facing upheaval from the use of technology such as artificial intelligence, according to people familiar with his thinking, and wants to invest more into The Spectator’s digital resources.
The acquisition will be one of the most expensive in the UK media based on a multiple of more than 30 times its 2022 earnings. The price, which was higher than expected, marks a fivefold increase on the £20mn that the Barclay brothers paid for the magazine in 2005.
Analysts at Enders had suggested that a value of about £40mn would be more realistic for a magazine that generated £2.9mn in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation on revenues of £20.8mn in its last set of accounts for 2022.
“We think it is worth every penny of that because it’s such an incredible brand and because as an opportunity, it’s unparalleled,” said Sayers.
“But make no mistake, this is a for-profit enterprise and Paul Marshall has a real . . . record in bringing technology to bear on sectors,” he added. “We think that this is a really interesting commercial opportunity.”
In an email to staff on Tuesday morning, Fraser Nelson, who is expected to remain as editor, said Marshall “knows that we can go further with more investment”.
He added that “the price, £100 million, speaks to that belief in our potential . . . this 5x valuation increase is, to put it mildly, rare in our industry”.
Sayers wants to expand the magazine in North America, where it has an edition, build its digital subscriptions and add to its video and podcast operations.
“The Spectator’s brand of wit and wisdom could be shared with an even wider audience here and around the world,” he said. “We’re definitely interested in whether the geographical reach could be expanded, and video and audio.”
In the UK, Sayers sees The Spectator as becoming a more essential source of information about British politics, competing with Politico, the online media group owned by Axel Springer.
“It is not only a place for big ideas that you sit back on Saturday morning and enjoy. It’s also a place you go to for daily first-class coverage of what’s going on in Westminster,” he said. “We think it could go even further in that direction.”
People familiar with the magazine’s operations said there had been no apparent attempt to influence its editorial direction by the Barclay brothers but worry this could change under Marshall, who observers regard as having stamped his values across UnHerd’s coverage.
People close to Marshall describe him as a defender of free speech and diversity of thought.
Another Tory MP, on the right of the party, said: “Paul would be a great owner of The Spectator — thoughtful and interested in ideas, not tribally Conservative but committed to the best traditions of liberal democracy.”
Marshall will chair the holding company but will not sit on the boards or management of any of the titles. “We are putting in place very careful governance structures to make sure that kind of editorial independence is preserved,” said Sayers.
The deal is being kept separate from talks for a consortium led by Marshall and including US hedge fund tycoon Ken Griffin to buy The Telegraph, even though both titles were previously owned by the Barclays.
The acquisition will be a boost for RedBird IMI, the Abu Dhabi-backed investment group whose £600mn purchase of the storied magazine and The Telegraph was blocked by the previous UK government this year given concerns over ownership by a foreign state, forcing it to put them back up for sale.
Those close to the deal say it has been unusually complex to complete, with the transaction requiring the sign-off of both the Barclay family, as the previous owners, and the independent directors who have been running the group.
People familiar with the thinking of Spectator employees said there was a sense of weariness stemming from long-running uncertainty over the publication’s ownership. Some fear a Marshall takeover could lead to a staff shake-up, a change in the magazine’s tone or an attempt to squeeze cash from the business.
But Sayers said the plan was to support and expand a well-established brand, and to “take the quality, the trustworthiness, the heritage of the old media and combine it with the innovation and creativity of the new media”.
