Alexander Lebedev, a Russian billionaire who was once a K.G.B. agent stationed in London, struck a long-awaited deal to buy The Independent newspaper on Thursday, little more than a year after he acquired another of Britain’s respected major papers, The Evening Standard of London. In a market dominated by racy tabloids, Britain has four widely respected, general-interest national papers, each with a Sunday sister paper: The Independent and The Guardian to the left of center, and The Times and The Daily Telegraph to the right. The Independent, with a circulation under 200,000, is the smallest, and has lost money steadily since its creation in 1986.
A statement released by the Lebedev family cast the purchase as a move that would “safeguard the future of the business.”
“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,” Mr. Lebedev said in the statement. “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.”
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