The Jewish Chronicle and Jewish News are closing down
The Jewish Chronicle (JC) and Jewish News (JN) are set to close down after announcing the company which owns them is seeking a liquidation agreement.
A statement in the JC said:
The liquidation is expected to be finalised in the coming 2 to 3 weeks and every effort will be made to ensure that the paper continues to be published over this period and the website continues to provide regular updates.
The Kessler Foundation, owners of the Jewish Chronicle, are actively working to secure a future for the Jewish Chronicle after the liquidation.
Guardian media editor Jim Waterson said the “parent company ran out of money as the coronavirus pandemic devastates the media industry”. He added that the JC might return in some form, leading to some staff getting their jobs back.
Merger
In February, the JC announced “ambitious plans” to create a merged company with JN. This would have seen the two titles continuing with a single combined editorial team. Such rationalisation is a common feature of the UK media landscape. JC chair Alan Jacobs said “Merging with the Jewish News provides the best opportunity to secure the independent future of the Jewish Chronicle”.
In June 2019, the JC had celebrated ‘securing its long-term future’, thanks to a successful fundraising drive. At the time, editor Stephen Pollard exclaimed “Here’s to the next 178 years”.
Read on...
Headwinds
Since then, however, the JC has been buffeted by a stinging adjudication from press regulator IPSO. This concerned a series of articles the paper had published relating to Liverpool Labour activist Audrey White and allegations that she had bullied former Labour MP Louise Ellman. IPSO found the JC guilty of “multiple” breaches of its accuracy code and of failing to publish appropriate corrections.
Subsequently, White accepted a libel settlement from the JC. This included ‘a substantial sum’ in damages as well as complete removal of the four offending articles from the JC’s website.
In its reporting of the settlement, the Electronic Intifada noted the JC had previously had to “pay $60,000 in libel damages to InterPal” and stated: “Such payouts cannot be helping The Jewish Chronicle with a recent financial crisis.” It observed that “According to their most recent accounts, the group that owns the Jewish Chronicle’s newspaper and website operates at a loss of more than $2 million, while [JN] has liabilities of more than $1.9 million”.
Featured image via The Jewish Chronicle / Jewish News
We know everyone is suffering under the Tories - but the Canary is a vital weapon in our fight back, and we need your support
The Canary Workers’ Co-op knows life is hard. The Tories are waging a class war against us we’re all having to fight. But like trade unions and community organising, truly independent working-class media is a vital weapon in our armoury.
The Canary doesn’t have the budget of the corporate media. In fact, our income is over 1,000 times less than the Guardian’s. What we do have is a radical agenda that disrupts power and amplifies marginalised communities. But we can only do this with our readers’ support.
So please, help us continue to spread messages of resistance and hope. Even the smallest donation would mean the world to us.
-
Show Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to leave a comment.Join the conversationPlease read our comment moderation policy here.
Even as Coronavirus rages every cloud has a silver lining. This lying propaganda rag has been brought down by Stephen Pollard. It was already losing its last few readers
Pollard is embarrassingly fanatical in his support for Zionism and fully deserves this failure. It is interesting that the market for this sort of thing is much smaller than the media would have us believe. And the Labour Party, for that matter. We are continually told of the “Jewish community” and the views of its self-appointed “leaders”. Whether it be the (ex) JC or the BoD, both of which have a shameful history when it comes to the dissemination of anti-Palestinian bigotry, we know that these “leaders” do not represent a community but far-right segments of it.
Someone tell Starmer. Please.
Starmer is perfectly aware. As are the other Labour leaders who cravenly accept orders from the B o D and expel anti-racist socialists to placate racist Zionists. It is simply electoral calculation. They know the media decide who will run the country and the media will side with the Zionist lobby, as it has throughout the disgracefully mendacious campaign to smear Corbyn as a racist and Labour as institutionally so. Yet this failure surely is a small positive signal: if you lie and distort the facts, if you persistently accuse your opponents of what you are guilty of, you dig your own grave. The judgement in favour of Audrey White shines a very bright light on the allegations made by Louise Ellman about anti-Semitism in her constituency, and if she was less than honest, might the rest of the accusers not be the same?
Poetic justice. Good riddance.
Dear Mr Ranson ,
Surely with the election of Sir Keir Starmer as the replacement of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader , Mossad support has been removed from an obviously tainted chalice , Job Done . Of course we can obviously assume that after an attempt at rebranding the same malicious apartheid mendacity will be recycled in another vessel . Apartheid will die without propaganda and lies ,
Derek
Its the Reality Show many have been waiting to see unfold as it should.
I see they used circluar reasoning in their excitement before the Coronavirus came.
Its the Reality Show many of us have been waiting to see unfold as it show. The fact many in the Labour party listened closely to these people makes one wonder what do they now think?