Posted on 01/16/2009 9:22:30 PM PST by bruinbirdman
At the KGB, he bought the paper to read. Now he’s buying it to own
It is a tale of 21st-century London: a former KGB officer turned plutocrat on the verge of buying a venerable newspaper from the last British press baron.
Two decades ago the deal between Alexander Lebedev and the fourth Viscount Rothermere to sell the 181-year-old London Evening Standard would have been inconceivable. But not in modern London, where new Russian money regularly vies with aristocratic wealth.
The precise genesis of the talks between the two parties about London’s only remaining paid-for evening newspaper is unknown. It is clear, however, that their paths crossed 18 months ago.
Lord Rothermere and his wife attended a fundraising ball at Hampton Court hosted by the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation. The foundation is run by Lebedev and his son Evgeny, while Viscountess Rothermere serves as patron of the annual Hampton Court ball.
At some point afterwards Mr Lebedev, 49, expressed interest in buying the newspaper and Viscount Rothermere, increasingly frustrated at the long-running losses suffered by the newspaper, was willing to listen.
Readers in the capital have fallen out of the habit of buying newspapers after work. Newly launched freesheets, including thelondonpaper, owned by News International, parent company of The Times, have been eating away at the Standard’s readership. So there was a financial incentive to discussing a deal. But there was also a meeting of minds.
Mr Lebedev may once have been a KGB officer but he had become an ardent capitalist, running the National Reserve Bank and holding a series of key industrial stakes, including 30 per cent of Aeroflot. Forbes rated him as the world’s 358th-richest man before the economic crisis, which he cheerfully claims has cost him $1 billion of his estimated $3.5 billion fortune.
(Excerpt) Read more at business.timesonline.co.uk ...
Former KGB? The New York Times would seem a better match-wouldn’t have to change the editorial policy either.
Hey, why don’t some KGB types buy up the NY Times and a few other MSM dinosaurs here?
They could hardly do a worse job running them into the ground, the papers would be just a reliably LEFT as now, and at least the public would know not to expect anything but agitprop.
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