Spectator owner said to be planning to fund new generation of UK journalists

The multimillionaire owner of the Spectator has met some of the most senior figures from Britain’s right-leaning media to discuss a plan to fund a new generation of journalists, the Guardian understands.

Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund founder who has become an increasingly pivotal media player in recent years, is said to have discussed the idea at a private dinner held around the time of the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (Arc) conference, a global gathering in London of conservative thinkers, politicians and businesspeople that he co-founded and supports.

One source described the proposal as raising the prospect of a conveyor belt of rightwing journalists. Another, however, said the idea, which is at a very early stage, would be “non-partisan” and would involve creating an apprenticeship scheme rather than a physical journalism school. “It’s about widening opportunities,” they said. “A lot of journalists tend to come from the same sort of background.”

The concept is inspired by a similar plan in France, in which a team of prominent media moguls and billionaires bought up the Superior School of Journalism of Paris (ESJ Paris), reputedly the oldest journalism school in the country.

The consortium included Europe’s richest man, Bernard Arnault, the boss of the luxury goods brand LVMH, which includes Louis Vuitton and Moët, and the conservative media mogul Vincent Bolloré.

Boris Johnson’s former policy chief Munira Mirza was said to be among those at the dinner. Her Civic Future charity already runs programmes helping “highly talented people to be the next generation of MPs, advisers, civil servants, commentators, or something else entirely”. Others understood to be in attendance were Michael Gove, who edits Marshall’s Spectator, and Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News UK.

Asked by the Guardian about the idea, a spokesperson for Marshall said he did not wish to comment. Mirza, Gove and News UK were asked to comment but declined to do so.

Marshall has become a crucial figure in the British media after amassing an influential empire in recent years, culminating in his purchase of the Spectator in September. He had already set up the opinion website UnHerd and invested in the GB News television channel, home to shows presented by Jacob Rees-Mogg, Nigel Farage and the Reform UK MP Lee Anderson. He has also donated huge amounts of his estimated £875m fortune to his charities and his church.

The notion of Marshall funding new journalists is likely to raise concerns about the politicisation of journalistic training. He has, however, previously rejected the idea that there is a political bias in all of his media outlets. UnHerd is regarded by many as running pieces mainly from the right, but Marshall has disputed this, arguing that “it is impossible to pinpoint politically where UnHerd is”.

The Arc conference is also growing. This year’s event, conducted over several days last month, hosted Donald Trump’s new energy secretary, Chris Wright, the US House speaker Mike Johnson, the American billionaire Peter Thiel and the Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, who is also a co-founder of the event.

Marshall used his address at the conference to warn that policies intended to achieve net zero were a sign that the UK was in the grip of “climate derangement syndrome”. He also complained about ever-present “wokery and DEI” policies.

The mogul has been on a political journey over his career, initially supporting the Liberal Democrats and editing the influential Orange Book, a collection of essays championing the wing of the party that prioritised personal choice and free markets.

He later became a major backer of Brexit and a Conservative party donor. He is not a member of any political party, and has said he has consistently backed the balancing of rights with responsibility.

The Spectator’s former chair, the journalist Andrew Neil, stepped down after Marshall’s takeover. He had previously stated his belief that hedge funds should not be allowed to own news publications because of the risk of conflicts of interest.