GB News owner buys Spectator magazine for £100m

The Spectator has been sold for £100m to Sir Paul Marshall, a hedge fund tycoon and major investor in GB News.

He beat around 20 other bidders to buy the right-leaning magazine, once edited by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

It went back on sale in April after an Abu Dhabi-backed bid to buy it along with the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph collapsed.

This came after the government intervened in January. Legislation banning foreign states from owning UK newspapers soon followed.

That deal would have transferred the ownership to the Gulf-backed Redbird IMI consortium.

The Telegraph newspapers remain for sale, and Sir Paul is also in the running to buy those as he continues his bid to build an empire of right-wing media outlets.

Others thought to be among the bidders include Rupert Murdoch’s News UK and former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi.

After the deal was announced, Spectator chairman Andrew Neil said he would resign with immediate effect, having previously stated that hedge funds should not be allowed to own news publications because of the risk of conflict of interest.

"I made it clear many months ago that I would step down when a new owner took over. That time has now come," he posted on X, formerly Twitter.

The Spectator was established in 1828, making it one of the oldest politics and current affairs magazines in the world.

Sir Paul, who is buying the magazine through his Old Queen Street (OQS) media group, said: “As a long-term Spectator reader, I am delighted it is joining the OQS stable.

"The plan is for OQS to make good previous underinvestment in one of the world’s great titles."

Who is Paul Marshall?

Sir Paul started work in the City and set up his own hedge fund with business partner Ian Wace in 1997. According to Wace, a "considerable proportion" of the first $50m they had under management came from the famous investor and philanthropist George Soros.

Worth an estimated £875m, Sir Paul is not that well known outside the financial and political worlds. He is probably less famous than his son Winston, a former member of the folk-rock band Mumford & Sons.

A devout Christian, Sir Paul is also known for his philanthropy, co-founding the children's educational charity ARK, and donating millions to set up the Marshall Institute for Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship.

In 2016 he was knighted for services to education and philanthropy.

Politically, he was a member of the Liberal Democrats for many years, and in 1987 he stood to be an MP for the SDP, a forerunner of the party.

By 2016 his allegiance had switched to the Conservative Party and he was a supporter of Brexit, donating £100,000 to the Leave campaign.

In 2017 he founded the news website UnHerd, and he has invested tens of millions of pounds in GB News since its launch in 2021.

Earlier this year he was accused of liking or reposting tweets that appeared to be anti-Muslim in sentiment. He apologised and said the tweets were not representative of his views, but he was widely criticised. Former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger said the "hateful ‘likes’ make him unfit to be a media mogul".

• LISTEN: Profile - Sir Paul Marshall

'Willing to invest'

Current Spectator editor Fraser Nelson told the BBC's World at One programme he felt "pretty confident" about the new owner.

"What you want in a proprietor is somebody who is willing to invest, who is willing to have the confidence in what the journalists are doing, and also is willing to protect editorial independence. And there’s not the slightest suggestion that Paul Marshall isn’t willing to do that," he said.

"The idea that he’s going to turn it into anything other than the journalistic enterprise which it is is just for the birds."

The Spectator and the Telegraph papers were put up for sale last year when they were seized by Lloyds Banking Group from long-time owners the Barclay family, who had failed to pay back a loan of more than £1bn.

They were sold to RedBird IMI in a deal which valued the publications at around £600m, before the government intervened and passed legislation, prompting RedBird to halt the takeover and put them back up for sale.

As a weekly news publication, the Spectator is not defined as a "newspaper" under the Enterprise Act and therefore does not fall within scope of the culture secretary’s powers to examine media mergers in the public interest.

"It is essential that the availability of a wide range of accurate and high-quality news and perspectives can be protected, and that the regime we have in place is equipped to keep up with changes and development in our media landscape," a spokesperson for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said.

"The culture secretary is now considering recommendations previously put forward by the independent regulator Ofcom on the function of the current regime."