The chief executive of the Telegraph has stepped down after seven years as the government prepares to launch a second investigation into public interest concerns raised by the Barclay family’s complex deal to transfer control of the titles to a UAE-backed consortium.
Nick Hugh, who has run Telegraph Media Group (TMG) since 2017, has left the company with immediate effect and did not provide a comment in a statement announcing his departure.
In an internal announcement, Hugh, who has led the Telegraph’s drive to more than 1 million print and digital subscribers, said it had been an “honour and privilege” to lead a group of titles that had “such an impact on society and democracy”.
Hugh, who will be replaced by Anna Jones, the former chief executive of the UK publisher of Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health and Esquire, said: “The interest in the ownership of TMG is testament to that fact.”
Mike McTighe, the chair of the board of Press Acquisitions, the parent company of TMG, said Hugh had tendered his resignation and that the board looked “forward to working with Anna and the whole of the management team as we look to secure a future for the Telegraph reflective of its rich history, vast opportunity and vital importance”.
Hugh’s abrupt departure provides the latest twist in the Barclay family’s attempt to transfer control to RedBird IMI, which derives most of its funding from Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the vice-president of the UAE and the owner of Manchester City football club.
The consortium, which is run by the former CNN chief executive Jeff Zucker, is paying the £1.16bn in debts that the Barclay family owed to Lloyds bank and has said it will swiftly convert the loan to take ownership if the deal goes through.
Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, is expected to issue a second public interest intervention notice (PIIN) calling on the regulators Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate the deal.
If she does it will supersede the original investigation from the two regulators ordered in late November that had been due to report by Friday, with both returning new findings in mid-March.
Ofcom will be tasked with looking again into the implications of the deal on the need for accurate presentation of news, free expression of opinion and a sufficient plurality of views and persons with control of ownership. The CMA will look at any potential competition concerns.
On Wednesday, Frazer said she had been forced to release a written statement saying she was “minded to” issue a new PIIN after the UAE-backed RedBird IMI revealed a last-minute corporate structure change.
