Axel Springer Completes Telegraph Takeover

THE TELEGRAPH: Mathias Döpfner heralds a day to remember and appoints new management

The Telegraph is at last secure under the ambitious ownership of Axel Springer, beginning a new era at the start of its 172nd year.

Europe’s largest news publisher confirmed it had won all the necessary regulatory approvals and had completed the £575m takeover on Tuesday.

It means that after a testing three-year odyssey The Telegraph is now under the ultimate stewardship of 63-year-old Mathias Döpfner, Axel Springer’s chief executive since 2002 and latterly its controlling shareholder.

In a meeting with staff in the newsroom, streamed worldwide to the publisher’s network of businesses, he revealed that Carolin Hulshoff Pol, the chief executive of the flagship German title Bild, will transfer to the top job at The Telegraph. » | Christopher Williams | Business Editor | Tuesday, June 30, 2026

Congratulations to the Telegraph! It is to be hoped now that its political direction will change markedly so that it at last becomes pro-EU. It is also to be hoped that Herr Döpfner will keep on reminding Telegraph staff and its readers that we are Europeans and that our destiny lies in and with Europe. – © Mark Alexander