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Conrad Black hated losing it, but the enforced sale in 2004 of the Telegraph Group for a whopping £665 million by its parent Hollinger International (of which the disgraced Black remains the biggest shareholder) looks better timed by the week.
Ever since the ultra-secretive Barclay twins bought it, the newspaper industry has been in meltdown. This month, another 130 Telegraph redundancies were announced, following 300 last year. As the group prepares to move to new offices in Victoria, it is hard to tell which is declining faster - circulation, advertising or morale.
Included in the latest bloodletting were 54 journalists. Yet at the same time as the Telegraph and other newspaper groups are sacking writers they are also raising their cover prices sharply, with the Daily Telegraph |
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This month, another 130 Telegraph redundancies were announced, following 300
last year |
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up from 40p a few years ago to 70p today.
Charging more and accepting lower circulations may indeed help see off the free-sheets and the internet. But will newspapers be able to pull it off when at the same time they are savagely cutting journalists?
To try to square this circle, both the Telegraph and the Times now rely heavily on subscriptions. But not only do these have to be sold at a discount, which rather defeats the objective of raising cover prices, but the schemes themselves are wide open to abuse. They rely on coupons which many independent newsagents cheerfully accept in payment for other publications and even for sweets.
The notion that papers should be cheap and good may be outmoded, but it is deeply embedded in this country. If the Barclays et al want to charge a premium, good luck to them. But they will have to provide a premium product, and it is hard to see how they can
do that if they have just fired half the journalists. 
FIRST POSTED SEPTEMBER 25, 2006
 Clash of cultures at Telegraph Towers
Conrad Black the victim
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