Nigel Farage has been writing columns for the Daily Telegraph since 2016, most of which have promoted the previously Brexit and now Reform UK party he leads, or accused his rivals of going soft on immigration. For this privilege the paper’s cash-strapped bosses paid him around £4,000 a month, adding up to nearly half a million pounds over the past decade.

News broke this week that Farage’s services are no longer required by the Telegraph’s new German owners, Axel Springer, though sources close to Farage say that he resigned. The paper is also reported to be negotiating the exit of Allison Pearson, who has been complimentary of far-right activist Tommy Robinson’s “rough-diamond charisma”, which together have prompted rumours that Springer has called a halt to the paper’s rightwards shift, calling it back to the basics of its Conservative party bible past.

All the attention so far has focused on the departure of these controversial columnists: subscribers have threatened to leave in posts on X, with mutterings about Springer’s pro-EU stance and the existence of its internal LGBTQ network.

Yet, while there are signs of a tonal shift away from some of the more outre Telegraph rantings, most of the outrage misses the main cause of the change. “This wasn’t politics,” one insider told me. “It was just money.”

The Telegraph is just the latest example of the trend for media organisations: while still attracting........

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