‘They just need to cut down on Netflix, lattes and avocado toast.’

The future of the Telegraph newspaper has been thrown into speculation amid reports that the owner of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph could face being put into administration by Lloyds Banking Group.

It has now been revealed that both newspapers are to be put up for sale in an auction as a result of the owners losing control of their assets.

Multiple sources at the bank revealed to The Guardian that AlixPartners had been appointed to seize the shares owned by the Barclay family, and that the Telegraph titles and Spectator will now be moved to auction.

Last night The Times reported that a breakdown of talks over unpaid loans with the Barclay family, who own the newspaper’ parent company Telegraph Media Group (TMG), had resulted in the threat of administration from Lloyds.

Press Acquisitions is the company at risk, which owns the Telegraph Media Group and is controlled by the Barclay family, headed by the twin brothers Sir David and Sir Fredrick Barclay after they brought the newspaper in 2004.

According to The Times, sources indicated that unless talks resumed to come up with a deal over £65 million of loans racked up by the business, then insolvency practitioners would be appointed within days.  

However, the Barclay family described the reports from their rival broadsheet as ‘unfounded and irresponsible’ and argued that the businesses in their portfolio ‘continue to trade strongly’.

A spokesperson for the Barclay family said: “The loans in question are related to the family’s overarching ownership structure of its Media Assets. They do not, in any way, affect the operations or financial stability of Telegraph Media Group.”

But members of the public have been quick to offer advice to the owners of the conservative publication, based on the common narratives that the right-wing paper often offers to their readership.

On Twitter, one reader suggested ‘they just need to cut down on Netflix, lattes and avocado toast’, heeding the papers own advice, whilst someone else wrote that it, ‘seems the paper’s owners never bothered to read any of the Telegraph’s paeans to the importance of living within one’s means.’

Or perhaps they could use their penchant for blaming ‘wokeness’ on just about everything, as one Tweeter noted, ‘I think we are about to find out that it is “woke” to expect money lent to right wing newspapers to be paid back in a timely fashion.’

Others are lamenting the potential loss of the Brexit supporting paper, which was recently ripped apart for an article on ‘Brexit benefits’.

The Daily Telegraph also came under fire from a disability rights group last week, who have filed an IPSO complaint against an ‘appalling’ Daily Telegraph story title “Exactly how much of your salary bankrolls the welfare state”, which campaigners argue targets sick and disabled people as being unworthy of state support.  

In response to the news of potential administration, broadcaster Jemma Forte Tweeted: “Which would mean no more headlines about Remainer mind viruses and the blob elite. How will we cope?”

Another Tweeter called the situation, ironic: “The paper that Boris Johnson worked for. The paper that backed Brexit. The paper never slow to advise how to run the economy or a business. Now possibly facing administration.

“How … how … well, ironic is the polite word.”

(Photo credit: Flickr / Creative Commons)

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