Jeff Zucker, whose Abu-Dhabi-backed group is trying to buy The Telegraph and The Spectator, pushed back on concerns about editorial influence, calling them “misplaced.”
The former CNN boss, who is now the CEO of investment group RedBird IMI, told The Telegraph’s business editor Christopher Williams he would “resign” if anyone came to him with any suggestion of pressure on the editorial team from the United Arab Emirates.
“I understand why people have raised questions,” he said. “All I can say is, they’re misplaced. I am here to say that the editorial independence of The Telegraph is guaranteed.”
Zucker told The Telegraph that even though he is backed by the UAE, he will lead the publications.
“This is me. This is not IMI or Abu Dhabi,” Zucker said. “In fact, the legal document that formed this joint venture says that IMI in no way has anything to do with the running of any of our investments. They are there at the entrance making the investment and at the exit.”
The exec explained that he had a “long relationship” with the UAE from his time at CNN, as the Gulf state housed the broadcaster’s third biggest bureau outside the US.
“When I left CNN, they approached me about starting a media fund. They came to me and they said, ‘People come to us every day about starting a media fund but we know you, we trust you, we back you’.” The “they”, he added, refers to people at the “highest level” of the state.
“I’m the one that then went to Redbird because I was having separate, independent conversations with them,” Zucker continued. “I said ‘Why don’t we marry these two ideas?’ That’s how it happened.
“The UAE was backing me. This wasn’t a UAE thing. It was me and they were backing me.”
Last week, Zucker lashed out at rival bidders, who questioned the UAE’s influence, for “slinging mud.”
“There’s a reason that people are slinging mud and throwing darts — [it’s] because they want to own these assets,” Zucker told the Financial Times on Friday. “And they have their own media assets to try to hurt us.”
He added that he would create an editorial advisory board to uphold the independence of The Telegraph and The Spectator and provide reassurances. He did not reiterate that proposal in his latest interview, making it unclear if that proposal is still on the table.
Instead, he said: “If The Telegraph writes a story that is true, then then there are no issues. The Telegraph should be in pursuit of the truth. That’s it, wherever it leads. Nobody is telling the Telegraph what to write or what not to write.”
Zucker’s RedBird IMI, a joint venture between US investment firm Redbird Capital and International Media Investments which is led by UAE deputy prime minister and Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, is the frontrunner to buy the British publications.
Last week, the group agreed to fork over about $750 million to the Barclay family — owners of the Telegraph newspaper and Spectator magazine — that would allow them to repay their nearly $1.4 billion debt to Lloyds Banking Group.
RedBird would then have an option to convert the loan secured against the publications into equity, while the other portion of the debt financing would come from IMI.
Lloyds Banking Group seized the publications in June from the Barclay brothers — Sir David and Sir Frederick — who bought the titles from Conrad Black in 2004 for $1.3 billion.
According to The PressGazette, the group has been given a deadline of Friday to repay the money to Lloyds or the plan is likely to collapse as a court hearing scheduled for Monday will liquidate the Barclays’ holding company.
But news of a potential deal has angered a group of Conservative Members of Parliament, writing to Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer and Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, who urged “close scrutiny” of the deal.
Frazer has said she is “minded to” issue a Public Interest Intervention Notice due to the foreign investment and potential public interest concerns.
Any investigation could lead to safeguards on editorial independence being enforced or even the deal being blocked altogether, with the likes of GB News investor Sir Paul Marshall, DMGT owner Lord Rothermere, and National World chairman David Montgomery waiting in the wings to scoop up the assets, The PressGazette reported.