Mystery deepens over surprise, multi-million pound bid for UK’s Jewish Chronicle
Some people named in consortium behind offer say they don’t know who the actual funder is; liquidation of JC and rival Jewish News pushed off to midweek
A deepening mystery surrounds a multi-million pound bid for Britain’s beleaguered Jewish Chronicle, with several people named as being involved saying they don’t actually know who the would-be buyer is.
The Chronicle and its rival Jewish News announced earlier this month that they would be going into liquidation and laying off their staff, with indications that a single publication would likely emerge afterwards.
According to two insiders who spoke to The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity Sunday, the liquidation process has not yet formally taken place. It was scheduled for Monday, but has been pushed back to later in the week, they said. Once a liquidator has been appointed, he or she would be obligated to accept the highest bid for the publications.
The Kessler Foundation, a charitable trust that has owned the Jewish Chronicle since 1984, submitted an offer early last week to acquire the assets of both publications and run them as a single publication. The foundation announced that the merged paper would be run by Jewish News editor Richard Ferrer, while Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard would step down and become an editor at large. It promised further details and said both papers would continue publishing for now.
However, on Thursday, the Financial Times revealed that a rival bid was filed for the papers by a consortium of political strategists, bankers and broadcasters who vowed to invest millions of pounds over the next five years.
The FT report said the consortium was being fronted by former Downing Street head of communications Robbie Gibb, biographer William Shawcross, former Labour MP John Woodcock, Rabbi Jonathan Hughes of Radlett United Synagogue, and prominent broadcasters John Ware and Jonathan Sacerdoti.
Both Hughes and Shawcross said they had put their names to the bid without knowing who the backer was, while Sacerdoti declined to comment, the Jewish News reported Sunday.
The law firm acting on behalf of the mystery buyer has also not named its client, The Times of Israel was told, making it difficult to assess the possible intentions of the bidder.
Jewish Chronicle editor Pollard announced Friday he was resigning from his position to support the mystery bid. “I cannot in good faith lend my support to the Kessler Foundation’s bid to take the paper out of liquidation while there is such a compelling alternative on the table,” he said.
I have released a statement on the future of @JewishChron pic.twitter.com/iDqOAQFPTY
— Stephen Pollard (@stephenpollard) April 17, 2020
Alan Jacobs, the current chairman of the Jewish Chronicle, criticized the rival bid for not revealing the source of its funding, telling the FT: “A bid for the Jewish Chronicle using money from an unidentified source and fronted by a group of individuals who refuse to tell the world anything of their plans looks like a shameful attempt to hijack the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper.” He added: “The consortium members need to come forward immediately to explain their motives and plans.”
For its part, the consortium accused the Kessler foundation of underhanded actions. “We are deeply disappointed with the Kessler Foundation’s conduct during this process, and consider it a cynical move to have put the paper into liquidation during the Jewish festival of Passover and over the bank holiday weekend, a move designed to rush through an outcome that maintains their control, but is clearly to the detriment of the paper and its creditors,” it said in a statement to the Financial Times.
Ahead of Passover, both papers, which in February had announced plans for a merger, simultaneously announced they were going into liquidation but indicated vaguely that they would seek to continue to publish in some form in the future.
For now, their staff have been laid off, and sources at the Jewish Chronicle told the Guardian that staff were informed the parent company had run out of cash and could not continue trading.
Both publications said they would do their best to continue to publish for the next two or three weeks, and to update their websites.
After that, they said without elaboration, they would be working “to secure a future… after the liquidation.”
The Jewish Chronicle is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world, having been founded in 1841.
The Jewish News, a Times of Israel partner, is a free newspaper established in 1997.
In February, the two titles announced “ambitious plans to merge their businesses to create one of the world’s leading community media brands.”
“The merger has been agreed in principle between the Jewish Chronicle’s owners, the Kessler Foundation, and the owners of the Jewish News, the Noé family,” they said at the time. However, they cautioned, “completion and the signing of a legal agreement is still dependent on necessary funds being raised to support the move.”
The Times of Israel Community.