- Paper thin - 27th November 2025
- Number blindness - 26th November 2025
- Biased Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) again - 25th November 2025
During 23 years with the BBC, and in a 42 year journalistic career (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, the diversity of media outlets, has always been a key issue, but now this plurality could be further undermined by disturbing news that the Daily Telegraph could be taken over by the Daily Mail (where he has worked).
Unfortunately the bean counters do not seem to agree with the maxim that the more is the merrier.
In fact they would go further, and say that in financial terms the FEWER is the merrier! Let me explain.
I would contend that it is far better to have a variety of views, with media outlets owned by different companies of varying political views (or state players) giving alternative accounts of events, so that the consumer can make up his or her own mind.
In Wales the situation is particularly bad, with both of the main newspapers serving the South and the North of the country, owned by the SAME company – Reach (or ‘Retch’ as Private Eye calls it!).
Perhaps the readers are not being served well, indeed journalists on their titles need to be reminded of how important they are, and were recently sent a memo by executives which read: “If you receive a call from a reader…please remember to treat them as a VIP”.
Reach plc (known as Trinity Mirror between 1999 and 2018) is the largest news firm in the UK, and including the Western Mail and Daily Post, has over 120 print and online brands.
I started on the South Wales Echo (SWE), then the biggest-selling paper produced in Wales, and it is also now, of course, owned by Reach. The huge company also controls the website WalesOnline (WO).
At a UK level too, though, it is enormous, and among its titles are the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Sunday Express, and Daily Star.
Now we could see more consolidation of the media into a few big blocs because the owner of the Daily Mail (DMGT) is in exclusive talks to buy the Daily Telegraph and its Sunday sister title for £500 million after the collapse of negotiations with RedBird Capital IMI.
Doubts have been raised though about this price, and where the money will come from.
Private Eye has proclaimed: “One question hanging over the planned acquisition of the Telegraph titles by Daily Mail and General Trust plc group is where Lord Rothermere’s group will get the £500m from to fund it”.
In a statement, DMGT said the exclusivity period to combine the two UK newspaper groups would be used to “finalise the terms of the transaction and to prepare the necessary regulatory submissions“.
“I have long admired the Daily Telegraph“, Lord Rothermere of the Daily Mail (DMGT is privately owned), has declared.
“My family and I have an enduring love of newspapers and for the journalists who make them.
“The Daily Telegraph is Britain’s largest and best quality broadsheet newspaper, and I have grown up respecting it.
“It has a remarkable history and has played a vital role in shaping Britain’s national debate over many decades.”
This “…enduring love of newspapers…’ may be news to journalists who work on Lord Rothermere’s papers.
So far this year there have been swingeing cuts at both the daily and Sunday titles of the Mail, and the website formerly known as MailOnline.
17 journalists have gone at the i, while at the Metro many have been told they face possible redundancy, with Editor-in-Chief Deborah Arthurs declaring: “…we will need to continue transforming how the newsroom operates”.
DMGT said it planned “to invest substantially in TMG (Telegraph Media Group) (they ALWAYS say that!) with the aim of accelerating its international expansion”.
“It will focus particularly on the USA, where the Daily Mail is already successful, with established editorial and commercial operations.”
Obviously any deal to combine the Mail and Telegraph titles will require regulatory approval, with the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, also expected to be involved in the process.
I would hope that Ms Nandy would share my concern about a further undermining of media plurality and halt this deal, because in the past the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has stated: “There (should remain) a broad range of political perspectives across print news”.
I fear, though, she might wave this one through because it could be seen as the money men (and they ARE mainly men!) simply combining a mid-market tabloid with an up-market broadsheet, and (as they are both right of centre titles opposed to her government) she might not care less.
In fact it seems it may already be a done deal, and the BBC reported at the weekend: “The publisher of the Daily Mail has agreed to buy the Daily and Sunday Telegraph for £500m”.
Whatever your like or dislike of these titles may or may not be (and I have worked for the Daily Mail), this state of affairs is uncomfortable to say the least.
The media landscape (especially in Wales) is bad enough anyway, and this could make it even WORSE!
The memories of Phil’s astonishing award-winning career in journalism (which began when many different companies owned alternative media outlets), as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition, Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’ (which includes details of his time on the Daily Mail). Order the book now!
