Does anyone, outside its longsuffering former and current employees, still care about the Daily Telegraph? The vexed and long-running saga over who owns the Telegraph Media Group, which last week landed back on the desk of the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, may leave Guardian readers cold, but it goes to the heart of the transparency and independence of the media industry.
The US private equity group RedBird Capital, which finally submitted details of its £500m takeover plans to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport last week, two years after emerging as a potential buyer, is a key part of an increasingly globalised and opaque media business. Its bid connects the 170-year-old newspaper of retired British colonels to the tech billionaires of the west coast with some of the most storied news organisations in the US.
