(Oct 23): Axel Springer SE is cutting roles at Telegraph Media Group Ltd (TMG), just months after the German company took control of the British newspaper publisher on the promise of fresh investment.

The newspaper will start a consultation period, with staff at risk receiving an email by midday, Telegraph editor Chris Evans and chief executive officer Carolin Hulshoff Pol said in an email to staff on Friday seen by Bloomberg News.

“These are difficult choices that we believe are necessary for the future of the business,” Hulshoff Pol wrote in the memo. It didn’t say how many cuts were being made.

A TMG spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The cuts signal a shift for the newspaper group under Axel Springer, which acquired TMG for £575 million (RM3.14 billion) in June, ending years of uncertainty over its future. The deal united two of Europe’s most influential conservative media brands under Axel Springer’s billionaire CEO Mathias Doepfner. 

At the time, the German media group, which also owns Business Insider and Politico, pledged to back an investment programme “to grow and expand the business to enable it to become the leading centre-right media outlet in the English-speaking world.” 

Axel Springer subsequently parachuted in its own top managers to the UK group. Carolin Hulshoff Pol, formerly head of German title Bild, became CEO, while longtime executive Patrick Wehrmann was appointed as finance chief. Evans will remain in his position.

Under the changes, the publication plans to merge the comment and analysis teams, and combine features and lifestyle workers, Evans told staff at a meeting on Friday to announce the cuts. 

“We will look to develop new revenue streams, and we will look to expand into overseas markets,” he said.

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