Staff at Telegraph Media Group received notice on Friday of a round of job cuts just months after the German company Axel Springer took control.
The British newspaper publisher was bought out earlier this year on the promise of fresh investment, but after examining the business the newspaper is to start a consultation period.
Staff at risk received an email by midday, Telegraph editor Chris Evans and chief executive Carolin Hulshoff Pol said in an email to staff on Friday, which was seen by Bloomberg News.
“These are difficult choices that we believe are necessary for the future of the business,” Ms Hulshoff Pol wrote in the memo. It didn’t say how many cuts were being made.
The cuts signal a shift for the newspaper group under Axel Springer, which acquired TMG for £575 million ($766 million) in June. In April, it completed the purchase of the publisher of The Daily Telegraph by acquiring a call option held by RedBird IMI in a deal notified to the UK government.
RedBird IMI had acquired the Telegraph titles as well as The Spectator magazine in 2023, but a retrospective change in British law forced the consortium to find a new buyer.
The deal united two of Europe’s most influential media brands on the right of politics. The buy-out was led by Axel Springer’s billionaire chief executive, Mathias Doepfner.
At the time, the German media group, which also owns Business Insider and Politico, pledged to back an investment programme “to grow and expand the business to enable it to become the leading centre-right media outlet in the English-speaking world”.
Axel Springer subsequently parachuted in its own top managers to the UK group. Ms Hulshoff Pol, formerly head of the German title Bild, became chief executive, while long-time executive Patrick Wehrmann was appointed as finance chief. Mr Evans will remain in his position.
Under the changes, the publication plans to merge the comment and analysis teams, and combine features and lifestyle workers, Mr Evans told staff at a meeting on Friday at which the cuts were announced.
“We will look to develop new revenue streams, and we will look to expand into overseas markets,” he said.