Telegraph auction poses litmus test for value of newspapers in digital age

While falling sales suggest the demise of print, the industry has proved adaptable and remains attractive to media barons

The imminent auction of the Telegraph is being viewed as a litmus test of the value of influential national newspaper titles in the era of increasingly digitally led profitability. Media barons and conglomerates, who have hung on to old-world assets for decades in the belief it was right to bet on a sector largely unfancied by tech-obsessed investors, are watching it keenly.

Since the onset of the digital era at the start of the century, newspapers have, with a few notable exceptions, been a precarious investment at best.