Robbie Gibb consortium wins last-minute bid for Jewish Chronicle after dramatic row
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A consortium led by former Downing Street spin doctor Robbie Gibb is set to take control of the Jewish Chronicle after its dramatic last-minute bid for the collapsed newspaper was accepted.
The London weekly last week announced it was seeking a creditors’ voluntary liquidation alongside the Jewish News, with which it had agreed to merge.
The Kessler Foundation — the charity that has owned the Jewish Chronicle since 1984 — submitted a bid for the assets of both newspapers, proposing to relaunch them as a single merged title.
However, the plan was derailed by a last-minute rival bid spearheaded by Gibb, who served as a close adviser to Theresa May.
Former Labour MP John Woodcock, Investec executive Robert Swerling and Kirkland and Ellis partner Jonathan Kandel are among other high-profile names in the consortium, as well as unnamed Jewish philanthropists.
The group’s bid, which was raised from £2m to £2.5m, has been approved by liquidators Begbies Traynor and the JC Trust, which oversees the newspaper’s editorial standards. The deal is now being finalised.
City A.M understands a new charitable trust will be established to fund the newspaper, while the new owners have pledged to maintain its editorial line and retain editor Stephen Pollard.
“Britain’s Jewish community deserves a general interest periodical with the breadth and stature of the Jewish Chronicle. It is a vital pillar of communal life and must have a secure, sustainable, and independent future,” the consortium said in a statement.
“It is our hope that together we can put the Jewish Chronicle in a position to thrive, and secure a future every bit as rich and meaningful as the paper’s past.”
It marks a swift end to a brief but fierce row between rival factions at the 180-year-old newspaper.
Pollard last week threw his weight behind the consortium’s offer, citing its commitment to make the company’s creditors whole and retain many of its employees.
Gibb’s consortium also took aim at the Kessler Foundation’s decision to put the paper into liquidation on the first day of Passover, describing it as “a move designed to rush through an outcome that maintains their control”.
The foundation, which had proposed to replace Pollard with Jewish News editor Richard Ferrer, hit back at the rival bid, saying there was “zero transparency” about where its money was coming from.
David Wolfson, chair of the JC Trust, said the editorial board was pleased to have “such a talented group” taking control of the paper.
“We have supported the process leading to the consortium’s ownership of the JC because we believe, in the current circumstances, that to be the best way to keep the JC’s heart beating,” he said.
The deal also means that the Jewish Chronicle and Jewish News have abandoned plans to merge.
Following the consortium’s intervention Leo Noe, the property tycoon owner of the Jewish News, took the paper out of liquidation to “save jobs and stop it falling into unknown hands”.
In a statement yesterday editor Ferrer hailed “good news at the end of a dramatic week of twists and turns that would make Shakespeare blush”.