• Join Puck

    Directly Supporting Authors

    A new economic model in which writers are also partners in the business.

    Personalized Subscriptions

    Customize your settings to receive the newsletters you want from the authors you follow.

    Stay in the Know

    Connect directly with Puck talent through email and exclusive events.

  • What is puck? Newsletters Authors Podcasts Events Gift Puck Careers

The WaPo Shiva Begins

Just when the slow-motion Telegraph sale finally seemed ready to close, Mathias Döpfner entered the chat. Does Axel Springer’s dark horse bid have any real chance? And why does anyone want the headache of owning a newspaper in 2026 anyway?

Mathias Döpfner
Should Rothermere get the asset, Mathias will have to keep hunting. He’s been stateside in recent weeks—attending the Super Bowl, advising Netflix’s pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery (he’s a Netflix board member), courting potential Politico editors, and getting to know the Trump White House—an itinerary that speaks to the oft-underappreciated scope of his influence. Photo: Ben Kriemann/Getty Images
Dylan Byers
February 25, 2026

Join Puck to listen to this article

Late last week, Mathias Döpfner, the Axel Springer C.E.O. and controlling shareholder, Politico proprietor, and perennially restive media suitor, revealed that he had lobbed his support in favor of an eleventh-hour bid for The Telegraph, the storied Tory broadsheet that has been mired in a tortured, yearslong sale process. Mathias and a small group of conservative transatlantic investors are shoring up the financing for Dovid Efune, the conservative, British-born publisher of The New York Sun.