Latest news with #PaulMarshall
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Paul Marshall: Britain's anti-woke media baron
Unlike Rupert Murdoch, he is barely known, but the UK has a new right-wing media mogul: Paul Marshall who has quietly built a powerful empire that reaches millions of Britons. The 65-year-old added to his impressive stable last autumn when he purchased The Spectator magazine, viewed as the bible of Britain's Conservative Party, for £100 million ($135 million). He already co-owned brash current affairs television channel GB News, a sort of British Fox News, and is the owner of respected centre-right-leaning news and opinion website UnHerd. Marshall -- who himself has been on a journey from supporting centrist politics to more right-wing causes in recent years -- got into media after making a fortune in finance. He is worth more than £850 million ($1.1 billion), according to this year's edition of the Sunday Times rich list. During a recent lecture at Oxford University, Marshall said he became a press baron "in an almost unplanned way". "I was a frustrated consumer," he said, denouncing what he called a "biased mainstream media" where "truth was sacrificed and trust was lost". During his media journey, he says he has "discovered a set of illiberal practices and a dominating mindset which I believe need to be challenged." - 'Generating influence' - Born in Ealing, London, in August 1959, the public-school-educated Marshall studied history at Oxford before enrolling at the prestigious French business school INSEAD. He made his wealth as a successful hedge fund manager, co-founding Marshall Wace. Along the way, he was a donor and member of the Liberal Democrats, a pro-European, social democratic party that usually finishes third in UK general elections. But Marshall left the Lib Dems in 2015 and donated to the Leave campaign in the referendum on European Union membership the following year. He told the Financial Times in 2017: "Most people in Britain do not want to become part of a very large country called Europe. They want to be part of a country called Britain." "He's different from Murdoch, who used his media empire to make money," Matt Walsh, head of the journalism school at Cardiff University, told AFP. "Marshall was rich before acquiring his media," Walsh added, noting his outlets are currently loss-making. "It's about generating influence, presenting his view of the world." Marshall "was a right-wing Lib Dem but gradually shifted further to the right", he said. Marshall donated once to the Conservative Party and founded UnHerd in July 2017, a website "for people who dare to think for themselves". In 2021, the financier shook up Britain's TV news ecosystem when he helped found GB News, the country's first new news channel since Murdoch's Sky News launched in 1989. The channel, whose logo adopts the colours of the British flag, is proudly anti-woke, and its presenters regularly rail against immigration and net zero climate policies. GB News has on several occasions fallen foul of Britain's broadcasting watchdog Ofcom, which says its use of politicians as interviewers breaches impartiality rules. But the provocative channel is growing in popularity. TV rating agency Barb found that in November 2024 GB News overtook Sky News for monthly live viewings for the first time. - 'Under-represented views' - According to Barb, GB News enjoyed an average of more than 3.1 million monthly viewings in the year to April. Its accounts published in February show that despite doubling turnover to more than £15.7 million, GB News made a pre-tax loss of £33.4 million for the year ending May 31, 2024. "He is keen about the promotion of what he sees as underrepresented ideas and viewpoints," a source close to Marshall told AFP. The mogul largely shuns publicity, as his communications team reminded AFP, declining a request for an interview. Marshall is a committed Christian who was knighted in 2016 for services to education and philanthropy. He launched ARK School in 2002, which has helped nearly 30,000 students from modest backgrounds. Marshall has also donated more than £80 million to the London School of Economics. His wife is French and their son Winston played the banjo in Mumford & Sons before leaving the folk-rock band after reportedly falling out with bandmates over his conservative views. In 2022, Marshall co-founded the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, an international conference of conservative lawmakers and right-wing influencers. To the Hope Not Hate organisation, Marshall is far right. Last year, it uncovered an anonymous account on X in which he had liked tweets calling for the mass deportation of immigrants. A spokesman for Marshall said then the tweets did not "represent his opinions". adm/pdh/jkb/rl/lb
Wall Street Journal
30-05-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
The Billionaire Odd Couple Whose Hedge Fund Is Killing It
LONDON—London investment duo Paul Marshall and Ian Wace outran competitors during the recent market turmoil with an unconventional trading strategy: a top-secret algorithm that analyzes tips from rival hedge funds and investment banks. It's Wall Street meets fantasy football. Stock salespeople and others across Wall Street submit trading recommendations to the duo's hedge-fund firm, Marshall Wace. The firm analyzes the ideas and rewards firms of top contributors with millions of dollars of commissions each year.
BBC News
23-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Daily Telegraph to be sold to US firm RedBird
American buyout firm RedBird has agreed a deal to take control of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph after a two-year ownership Capital will buy the stake owned by Emirati royal Sheikh Mansour who had bankrolled an earlier bid was rejected by the previous government, which passed a law preventing foreign governments owning British newspapers or news current proposed deal will need regulatory approval. Both Telegraph titles and the Spectator magazine were put up for auction by Lloyds Bank, who seized them from the Barclay family for non-payment of outstanding a bold but ultimately unsuccessful move, a consortium of RedBird and Sheikh Mansour's IMI paid off the Barclay brothers' debts in full hoping to shortcut the auction the fact that the consortium was almost entirely funded by IMI saw the government intervene and prevent it taking majority is thought that IMI will retain a minority stake of less than 15% in the two papers. Meanwhile, the Spectator was sold to hedge fund billionaire Sir Paul Marshall last year for £ BBC understands the purchase price will see RedBird IMI get its money back in brings to an end a two-year limbo period which the Telegraph staff found unsettling and left them concerned that sufficient investment and direction was lacking.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GB News being punished to appease Left-wing activists, says co-owner
Ofcom is unfairly punishing GB News under pressure from Left-wing activists, the broadcaster's co-owner has said. Sir Paul Marshall accused the regulator of unfairly targeting the start-up broadcaster with a string of investigations as it struggles to fend off an 'onslaught' of complaints from pressure groups such as Stop Funding Hate. In a speech at Oxford University on Tuesday evening, the media tycoon was expected to say: 'Understandably, Ofcom find it difficult, just like other corporate and institutional boards, to resist the pressures from Left-wing campaigning groups and this has led them to initiate many more enquiries into GB News than could be justified.' Ofcom has found GB News in breach of broadcasting rules a dozen times since its launch in 2021, taking issue with alleged misinformation and its use of politicians as presenters. Sir Paul, a hedge fund tycoon who co-owns GB News alongside Dubai-based investment firm Legatum, has argued that many of the investigations against the channel stem from complaints orchestrated by campaign groups. Even before its launch, the broadcaster was targeted by an advertising boycott led by Stop Funding Hate, which resulted in brands including Ikea and Nivea pulling their campaigns. The boycott continues to hit GB News's bottom line, although other brands such as Marks & Spencer have started to advertise on the channel. Sir Paul said GB News intends to have 'as constructive a relationship as possible with' the broadcasting regulator. But he added: 'They sit within a framework full of anomalies and they are steadily assailed by invective from Left-wing activists, so it is not easy for them to resist the biases of metropolitan opinion.' Sir Paul has weighed in on the debate after Angelos Frangopoulos, chief executive of GB News, accused Ofcom of having a 'jailer' mentality that was harming Sir Keir Starmer's growth plan. Writing in The Telegraph earlier this month, the TV boss said Ofcom's plans to crack down on the use of politicians as presenters would make it 'even harder for budding newcomers'. Sir Paul, a self-styled 'accidental' media owner who also owns UnHerd and bought The Spectator magazine for £100m last year, urged Ofcom to instead focus its attention on the BBC. He argued that the public service broadcaster is held to lower standards of impartiality as it is permitted to review complaints first before they are escalated to the regulator. Sir Paul accused the BBC of 'egregious bias' in its Arabic service and said the broadcaster had 'failed spectacularly' in its coverage of the grooming gangs scandal. He also branded bosses 'weak, weak, weak' over the Gary Lineker anti-Semitism scandal and called for the corporation to be broken up. The BBC has said the Match of the Day presenter made a mistake after sharing a social media post about Zionism that included an illustration of a rat, but it has repeatedly denied allegations of bias in its reporting. An Ofcom spokesman said: 'As an independent regulator, we enforce our rules fairly and proportionately. All regulated broadcasters must comply with Ofcom's rules. 'The 'BBC First' process for complaints about BBC content is set out in the BBC Charter and Agreement and was approved by Parliament.' In his Pharos lecture, Sir Paul also took aim at tech giants. He said Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg should be forced to publish their algorithms and said platforms such as X and Meta should face tougher regulation to ensure they are held accountable for material posted on their sites. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GB News being punished to appease Left-wing activists, says co-owner
Ofcom is unfairly punishing GB News under pressure from Left-wing activists, the broadcaster's co-owner has said. Sir Paul Marshall accused the regulator of unfairly targeting the start-up broadcaster with a string of investigations as it struggles to fend off an 'onslaught' of complaints from pressure groups such as Stop Funding Hate. In a speech at Oxford University on Tuesday evening, the media tycoon was expected to say: 'Understandably, Ofcom find it difficult, just like other corporate and institutional boards, to resist the pressures from Left-wing campaigning groups and this has led them to initiate many more enquiries into GB News than could be justified.' Ofcom has found GB News in breach of broadcasting rules a dozen times since its launch in 2021, taking issue with alleged misinformation and its use of politicians as presenters. Sir Paul, a hedge fund tycoon who co-owns GB News alongside Dubai-based investment firm Legatum, has argued that many of the investigations against the channel stem from complaints orchestrated by campaign groups. Even before its launch, the broadcaster was targeted by an advertising boycott led by Stop Funding Hate, which resulted in brands including Ikea and Nivea pulling their campaigns. The boycott continues to hit GB News's bottom line, although other brands such as Marks & Spencer have started to advertise on the channel. Sir Paul said GB News intends to have 'as constructive a relationship as possible with' the broadcasting regulator. But he added: 'They sit within a framework full of anomalies and they are steadily assailed by invective from Left-wing activists, so it is not easy for them to resist the biases of metropolitan opinion.' Sir Paul has weighed in on the debate after Angelos Frangopoulos, chief executive of GB News, accused Ofcom of having a 'jailer' mentality that was harming Sir Keir Starmer's growth plan. Writing in The Telegraph earlier this month, the TV boss said Ofcom's plans to crack down on the use of politicians as presenters would make it 'even harder for budding newcomers'. Sir Paul, a self-styled 'accidental' media owner who also owns UnHerd and bought The Spectator magazine for £100m last year, urged Ofcom to instead focus its attention on the BBC. He argued that the public service broadcaster is held to lower standards of impartiality as it is permitted to review complaints first before they are escalated to the regulator. Sir Paul accused the BBC of 'egregious bias' in its Arabic service and said the broadcaster had 'failed spectacularly' in its coverage of the grooming gangs scandal. He also branded bosses 'weak, weak, weak' over the Gary Lineker anti-Semitism scandal and called for the corporation to be broken up. The BBC has said the Match of the Day presenter made a mistake after sharing a social media post about Zionism that included an illustration of a rat, but it has repeatedly denied allegations of bias in its reporting. An Ofcom spokesman said: 'As an independent regulator, we enforce our rules fairly and proportionately. All regulated broadcasters must comply with Ofcom's rules. 'The 'BBC First' process for complaints about BBC content is set out in the BBC Charter and Agreement and was approved by Parliament.' In his Pharos lecture, Sir Paul also took aim at tech giants. He said Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg should be forced to publish their algorithms and said platforms such as X and Meta should face tougher regulation to ensure they are held accountable for material posted on their sites. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
