Russian billionaire and former KGB man Alexander Lebedev has bought The Independent and Independent on Sunday in Britain for £1 and, as Reuters reports, he might turn it into a free sheet.
Lebedev, who is a business partner with former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev put out a statement where he said he wants to bolster The Independent's credentials as a tough investigative newspaper. "I invest in institutions which contribute to democracy and transparency and, at the heart of that, are newspapers which report independently and campaign for the truth to be revealed. I am a supporter of in-depth investigative reporting and campaigns which promote transparency and seek to fight international corruption. These are things the Independent has always done well and will, I hope, continue to do."
As The Guardian reports, the Irish publisher Independent News & Media is actually paying Lebedev's company £9.25 million ($US13.77 million) over the next 10 months to take loss making paper off their hands. Closing it down would have been too expensive.
So will The Independent survive? Let's put it this way – there aren't too many billionaires left these days who run newspapers.
no comment untill now