Editor Stephen Pollard wrote the following open letter on 23 April on the JC website:
I am thrilled to confirm that agreement has been reached for the rescue of the Jewish Chronicle and for the transfer of its ownership into the hands of a philanthropic consortium led by Sir Robbie Gibb, with the ultimate goal of establishing a charitable trust to ensure its long term stability.
For most of my time as editor the JC has been produced despite huge financial and business uncertainty. It is a tribute to our staff that readers would have been unaware of this, as our commercial team produced near miracles to keep the show on the road and because the paper itself contained consistently outstanding journalism.
That uncertainty is now at an end. For the first time in many years we have backers who are committed to investing in journalism and to making the JC and thejc.com even better and more essential reads.
I supported the consortium’s bid because it promised to maintain the paper’s independence, provide financial stability, retain many of our existing staff, pay fair and full redundancy to those that it couldn’t afford to keep and – crucially – to honour the debts the paper has built up.
I wish to thank those donors that have made philanthropic contributions to secure the paper’s future. They are entitled to their privacy and will have no say in editorial policy, nor any beneficial ownership of the Jewish Chronicle.
I can confirm that I am aware of who our supporters are, am humbled by their generosity, and wish to remind readers that donor anonymity is entirely in keeping with precedent. When the JC underwent a financial restructuring in 2019, I wrote in these pages that, “The names of the charitable donors have been kept anonymous so we are able to continue reporting on the community without any possible conflict of interest. The donors know who they are and we at the JC express our profound gratitude to them.”
I have been asked to remain as editor and have accepted with excitement at the prospect of what lies ahead for the JC, its staff and our writers.
These are exciting times for the JC, at a moment when the community needs an in depth, serious and respected newspaper and website more than ever.
It is my hope that we can put the distraction of recent weeks behind us and get back to doing the work that we love, producing a quality newspaper worthy of our readers and worthy of the Jewish Chronicle’s rich history.
Stephen Pollard
Editor, Jewish Chronicle
