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The New European in management buy-out

A consortium including former BBC Director General Mark Thompson and ex-Financial Times editor Lionel Barber has bought The New European (TNE).

The New European in management buy-out

As reported by Ian Murray on the Society of Editors website:

A total of 14 investors have participated in the management buy-out of The New European, the weekly title initially launched on a four-week run in 2016 to fight Brexit.

TNE was owned by Archant who themselves were taken over in a recent purchase by a private equity group.

Matt Kelly, founding editor of the paper, led the fund-raising effort, and has left Archant to become CEO and editor-in-chief of TNE.

Other backers include: Robin Klein, ex-partner at Index Ventures, co-founder of The Accelerator Group, and now at Local Globe; Taavet Hinrikus, the Estonian founder of TransferWise, an international money transfer platform.

The BBC reported the deal was first discussed at Piers Morgan’s annual Christmas party at The Scarsdale Tavern, a pub in Kensington, west London, in 2019.

Other backers are reported to be: Saul Klein (Local Globe, with his father Robin), Barry Maloney (Balderton), Jeff Henry (ex-CEO of Archant who green-lit TNE), journalist Steve Anglesey, ex-McKinsey partner Cornelius Walter and entrepreneur Niels Kroninger.

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