Our new owners on their vision for the paper

WE ARE delighted that our effort to rescue the Jewish Chronicle from liquidation has prevailed. The oldest Jewish newspaper in the world went to print this week, as it has done for the last 179 years.

Britain’s Jewish community deserves a general interest periodical with the breadth and stature of the Jewish Chronicle. It is a vital pillar of communal life and must have a secure, sustainable and independent future.

The newspaper industry is experiencing severe financial difficulties across the developed world and the

Jewish Chronicle as we know and love it would have disappeared but for philanthropic support.

We are not treating the Jewish Chronicle as a commercial venture but as a community asset. For that reason, we are working to establish a UK charitable trust that will control the Jewish Chronicle. Trustees who command the respect of the community, and have demonstrated commitment to editorial independence and impartiality, will be appointed to oversee this trust.

Those donors that have made philanthropic contributions to secure the future of this treasured institution are entitled to their privacy and will have no say in editorial policy nor any beneficial ownership of the Jewish Chronicle. The current editorial direction of the Jewish Chronicle will be maintained under the leadership of Stephen Pollard and his editorial team.

We thank the paper’s previous owners the Kessler Foundation and its trustees, the JC’s Chairman Alan Jacobs, Chair of the JC Trust David Wolfson and all those who have donated their time and money to support the paper over the years.

We are now hard at work to place the business on a sound financial footing that accords with reasonable projections of costs and revenues.

Matching that financial objective with the goal of delivering a product of enhanced quality, depth, and vibrancy, that better serves the community, while maintaining continuity in all that people expect of the JC, will be our task going forward.

Serving the community and engaging our readers will be core to whatever success we are able to achieve.

To that end, we want to hear from you and so are inviting readers to email ideas to mypaper@thejc.com for

1. How the JC might better engage with and serve the community; 2. How we can improve our content; 3. Any other ways in which we can better serve our readers.

We hope to put the Jewish Chronicle in a position to thrive and secure a future every bit as rich and meaningful as the paper’s past.

To do so, we will need your support. We look forward to being in touch with exciting updates in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, thank you for reading.