LONDON (Reuters) – The owner of Britain’s stricken Jewish Chronicle is battling to save a newspaper for the Jewish community by seeking to buy the assets of the title along with another failing newspaper, the Jewish News, from liquidators.
Both newspapers said last week they were set for liquidation after the novel coronavirus pandemic led to a collapse in advertising spend.
The Jewish Chronicle, which describes itself as the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper and is also known as the JC, said on Tuesday that its owner, the Kessler Foundation, had submitted an offer to the proposed liquidators.
It is seeking to buy the assets of both titles to preserve a single merged newspaper for the community that will “benefit from all the existing protections which guard its independence”.
“We are pleased to inform you that the Kessler Foundation, owner of the Jewish Chronicle, has today submitted an offer to the proposed liquidators of both the Jewish Chronicle and the Jewish News for the assets of both titles,” it said on the Chronicle’s website.
Stephen Pollard, editor of the JC for 11 years, will step down from day-to-day responsibilities and become editor at large, while Richard Ferrer, editor of the Jewish News for 11 years has been invited to become editor of the merged title should the plan succeed.
“In the meantime, the Jewish Chronicle and Jewish News will be published as usual,” it said.
The possible demise of the two titles had sparked headlines around the world, while newspapers everywhere are grappling with a plunge in advertising sales and circulation.
The London-based Jewish Chronicle says it strives to reflect a diversity of Jewish religious, social and political thought across the spectrum, both Orthodox and secular.
The Jewish News was established in 1997. It describes itself as Anglo-Jewry’s most read newspaper with a focus on serving the Jewish communities of greater London.
(Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Barbara Lewis)
