Paper changes owner

Press, 16 December 1985, Page 6

Paper changes owner

NZPA-NYT London After 57 years of ownership by . the Berry family control of the “Daily Telegraph,” a morning newsE, has gone to Conrad , a Canadian financier.

The move, announced on Friday, is part of a SUS 43 ($81.27) million measure to refinance the newspaper, which has suffered losses and needs operating capital. Lord Hartwell, chairman and editor-in-chief, said on Friday he was “very sad” to

have lost control but promised that the newspaper would be run “in the same way as it always has boen ” The editor of “The Economist,” Andrew Knight, will run the day-to-day operations at the “Telegraph,” which has a daily circulation of 1.4 million. The “Sunday Telegraph,” part of the same group, has a circulation of 695,000. During Mr Knight’s 12 years at “The Economist”

its circulation doubled to 280,000. A financial report issued on Friday for the first six months of the financial year showed that instead of the predicted profit equivalent to $13.42 million the'newsEhad lost $18.14 million ■ taxes. With other expenses, such as severance pay of up to $122,000 a person for those being replaced though the introduction of new technology, the loss was the equivalent of $144.79 million.