When the Barclay brothers bought the Telegraph titles in 2004 the new ownership was supposed to usher in a period of stability after their predecessor, the Canadian press baron Conrad Black, was sued by his own company. He was eventually sentenced to six and a half years in a US prison for fraud before being granted a pardon by Donald Trump.
And at first the new proprietors — Sir Frederick and Sir David — enjoyed success. They were well known in the City but were regarded as secretive. They were tough negotiators and had already dabbled in the press with the doomed Sunday Business, but their main interests seemed to be in property. Their most obvious trait was a desire for privacy. What did they want with a newspaper? The trappings of the London media world seemed of little interest.
For a while it seemed to work, at least as well as anyone expected. The peak arguably came in 2009 when the Telegraph launched an investigation into MPs expenses claims based on millions of leaked documents. It was a journalistic triumph and a service to the nation. Maybe the Barclays brothers did get newspapers — or at least knew enough to leave the running of them to people who did.
Since then, life has got dramatically harder, culminating in the tumultuous events of recent days that look set to strip the Barclay family of control of their newspaper titles. The paper is still going, and is profitable, but staff turnover has been high and some say it is not a fun place to work.
Maybe the attention of the Barclays was diverted. There was family infighting with plots worthy of TV’s Succession. Sir David died. His sons were accused of bugging conversations with Sir Frederick at The Ritz. A later statement from the family declaring unity was not taken entirely seriously. Sir Frederick narrowly avoided a prison sentence himself for contempt over failing to honour a £100 million divorce settlement to his wife of 34 years, Lady Hiroko Barclay.
The Ritz was sold to the fury of Sir Frederick, who now faces the loss of some of the most prestigious titles in the UK. A price of £700 million is under discussion.
The Barclays’ fatal mistake was to fall foul of their bank lenders. Lloyds Bank had simply had enough of their failure to service or repay debts and in effect pulled the plug. Potential buyers will want to take a very close look under the bonnet of the business to see what they would be buying and what potential surprises lurk underneath.
For the Barclay family, their stint at the apex of the UK media world appears to be over and the future of the Telegraph titles is once again plunged into uncertainty.
The Barclays’ downfall is the sort of story their own newspapers would relish — if it were not happening quite so close to home.
