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Insider Trading: Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner wears his stage costume at The Datterich Festival 2015, which will see heavyweights of the German media industry performing on stage. (Photo by Fredrik von Erichsen/Getty Images)
Welcome to the latest edition of Breaker. If this email has been forwarded, you can subscribe here and send your questions and complaints here. If you have a tip contact the 24/7 Breaker Tip Hotline via text or Signal # 551 655 2343. Anonymity guaranteed!
In tonight’s edition, Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner is the man with a plan to make The Telegraph a dominant global media brand, and he has the Financial Times in his sights. Breaker has details of Döpfner’s vision, including hiring a “global editor-in-chief” and the Murdoch favorite he is eyeing for the role. We also have intel about how the U.S. Telegraph expansion could provide a much-needed face-saving solution to Business Insider’s ailing fortunes.
Also, tonight, another one bites the dust as Politico loses yet another star reporter from its ranks; we reveal who’s walking away from the Axel Springer-owned publication below. Meantime, a top exec is out at Condé Nast, and the New York Times has made yet another poach from the Washington Post.
And finally, a who’s who of news and tech turned out for the launch of Joanna Stern's new book: I Am Not A Robot: My Year Using AI To Do (Almost) Everything. We have a scene report from the shindig as Stern was interviewed by The Verge’s Nilay Patel.
Mentioned tonight: Josh D’Amaro, Bob Iger, Diane Sawyer, Robin Roberts, David Muir, Barbara Walters, Deborah Turness, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jonathan Greenberger, Roula Khalaf, Lionel Barber, Kareem Rahma, Robin Harding, Janine Gibson, Tom Braithwaite, Alec Russell, John Ridding, Jon Slade, Aaron Kirchfield, Matt Vella, Madison Marriage, Cheryl Brumley, Ashling O’Connor, James Fontanella-Khan, Peter Spiegel, Orlando Reece, Maggie Milnamow, Barbara Peng, Campbell Brown, Nicholas Thompson, Elena Schneider, Ankush Khadori, Anna Palmer, Eric Newcomer, Mosheh Oinounou, Bryan Goldberg, Brian Stelter, Joe Marchese, Pilar Queen, Marc Paskin, Nicholas Carlson, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Rob Copeland, Jon Fortt, Jamie Heller, Kim Last, David Pogue, Alan Paul, Dennis Berman, Lucia Moses, Bari Weiss, Andrew Morse, Paul Curran, Mark Sweney, Bobby Allyn, Sarah Johnson, Bill Adair, Oliver Darcy, Ben Shapiro, Alex Sherman, Graydon Carter, Elisabeth Bumiller, Adam Gabbatt, Michael Savage, Sara Fischer, Sam Schube, Patrick Coffee, Joe Flint, John Koblin, Jim Rutenberg, Michael Grynbaum, Byron Allen, Peter Kafka, Emma Roth, Kyle Buchanan, Sarah Bahr, Alex Farber, Dan Primack, Jim Waterson, Katie Razzall, Jacob Cohen Donnelly, Max Tcheyan, Nathan May, Rachael Bade, Michael Kruse, Scott Schomburg, Joana Avillez, Alex Vadukul, Susan Orlean, Josh Safdie, Beth Rigby, and more.
Mathias’ Master Plan
(Exclusive.) Back in the digital media glory days of 2015, when the likes of BuzzFeed and Vice were at their peak, Axel Springer was trying to buy The Financial Times.
CEO Mathias Döpfner viewed the FT, then owned by Pearson, as the crown jewel of media properties with its elite business reporting and enviable digital subscription numbers. Acquiring it, the Germans strategized, would give Springer international prestige outside of its local titles like Bild and Die Welt.
Instead, it would be Japanese holding company Nikkei that swooped in with $1.3 billion and bought the FT. Axel pivoted and paid $343 million for Business Insider, which was quite the consolation prize.
Now a decade on, Döpfner is eyeing a plan to take on The Financial Times following his acquisition of The Telegraph for $770 million.
Döpfner, never one to be shy about his thoughts, has told Axel Springer executives about his vision to turn The Telegraph into a dominant global media brand.
Discussed internally at Axel has been the idea of folding Business Insider (which is not profitable) into …
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⁘ As credited in The New York Times, CNBC, Axios, The New York Post, CNN, Bloomberg, The Guardian, and more.
West Wing and a Prayer
(Exclusive.) Politico has lost another star reporter, adding to the dozens upon dozens of top talent that have bolted from the Beltway outlet in the last year.
Breaker has learned that White House Correspondent …
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The rest of this newsletter is for paid subscribers.
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⁘ As credited in The New York Times, CNBC, Axios, The New York Post, CNN, Bloomberg, The Guardian, and more.
Read All About It: The Newsletter Conference arrives in NYC
On Friday, Breaker will join A Media Operator founder, Jacob Cohen Donnelly and Caper CEO, Max Tcheyan, for a panel titled The Art and Science of Getting Readers to Pay at the Newsletter Conference. The panel at the Times Center in Midtown at 430 pm will be moderated by The Feed Media founder Nathan May. Amongst the stellar lineup at the conference: Nicholas Thompson, Joanna Stern, Anna Palmer, Oliver Darcy, Eric Newcomer and Mosheh Oinounou.
The Breaker Pod From The Truth Tellers Summit in London with Jim Waterson and Katie Razzall
At the fourth annual Sir Harry Evans Truth Tellers Summit in London last week, Breaker graced the stage for a panel about independent journalism, in front of hundreds of journalists, editors, and media executives.
On the panel, moderated by BBC media editor Katie Razzall, aptly titled “Journalism on a Credit Card,” Breaker was joined by London Centric founder and editor Jim Waterson. We compared notes on a topic we both know well — building independent media businesses from scratch.
“There were the first four months — and no joke — I was waking up in the middle of the night spewing my guts up with stress because I was worried I was going to lose my life savings,” Breaker told the crowd.
Waterson, the former media editor at The Guardian who left after taking a voluntary redundancy, described a similarly terrifying transition into independent journalism.
“The Guardian was the only place I ever wanted to work,” Waterson said. “But then … I thought I’d give myself six months. I’d see if I could build something on my own.”
Catch more in this week's episode of The Breaker Pod. Make sure you check us out and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your pods.