Does the Telegraph need a fix or a spot of fine-tuning?

While not yet cut and dried, it looks likely that the Barclay brothers could soon add Telegraph Newspapers to their existing list of newspaper assets. With both the Sunday and Daily titles losing sales, an ageing readership, and the new challenge posed by the introduction of compact formats, they would seem to face a few problems – not least the prospective opposition from the board of the newspapers operating company Hollinger International, which is trying to drum up bids for its newspaper assets to pre-empt the takeover.

The July to December ABC figures show that the Telegraph is not the only title suffering from circulation problems – the quality sector as a whole continued to lose circulation year on year, with The Times recording a bigger drop than The Daily Telegraph. This is why the introduction of the compact formats is so significant to the sector if it is to reverse circulation losses, especially among younger, urban commuters. In itself this may present the Telegraph’s new owners with a dilemma.

While accepting that they might be forced to produce a compact edition to attract new blood, it would almost certainly commit the new owners to dual format production for some time to come if their existing readers are to be retained. Joining the compact clan might also spark a costly cover-price war with The Times. Given an ageing UK population, how bad is it to have an older profile than your competitors? Though The Daily Telegraph remains the best-selling quality daily, it may be a tougher call for it to introduce a tabloid format than for its competitors.

But the change of ownership raises some issues of its own. In an interview this week, Sir David Barclay implied that the titles’ traditionally Tory political stance could change and that dogmatic adherence to the Tory line should no longer be assumed. But with a General Election due within 18 months, it would seem a bad time to risk alienating one of the Telegraph’s core audiences.

There are also questions about the leadership of the titles under a new regime, especially over the role of Andrew Neil, who heads the brothers’ other newspaper operations. As Telegraph journalists this week threatened strike action over pay, they also expressed concerns about Neil having any involvement in the running of the Telegraph, given his record of staff cuts during his time at The Times.

With the broadsheet sector undergoing what could be the most significant overhaul since the Eighties, some changes at the Telegraph seem inevitable. But once the dust swirling around the acquisition has settled, the new owners may well conclude that for now there is more left unbroken at the Telegraph than needs fixing. It could well be that the retired majors and blue rinses needn’t sell up and emigrate in disgust just yet.

Jo Blake is media director at Carat