Who owns the campaigning and investigative newsbrand Byline Times?
It is a question Press Gazette sought to answer after receiving a tip-off from a reader that ownership of the monthly newspaper and website is difficult to discern.
Byline Times promotes itself as offering an independently-run alternative to billionaire-owned publishers and one of its core areas of coverage is “the crisis in British journalism” – with questions over media ownership a key part of that.
However, the majority of shareholdings and investments in Byline Times Ltd remain anonymous.
Asked who owns the title, Byline Times said in a statement: “Through their personal share holdings, brand licensing and allocations in family trusts, Stephen Colegrave and Peter Jukes control and effectively own Byline Times.”
Byline Times is owned by Byline Times Ltd which was founded by directors Peter Jukes (who became well-known when he covered the entire eight-month hacking trial on Twitter in 2013/14) and Stephen Colegrave (former marketing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Saatchi & Saatchi) in 2018.
The Byline brand is a registered trademark owned by Byline Media Holdings (founded in 2016). Byline Holdings is 56% owned by Peter Jukes.
The Byline Festival is run by a separate company, Bylinefest Ltd, which is also run by Jukes and Colegrave and was founded in 2016.
Jersey-registered company allows Byline backers to remain anonymous
Byline Times Limited is majority-owned by JTC Trustees. Its parent company is JTC plc, a Jersey-registered corporate services provider which manages trust structures on behalf of wealthy clients and reported revenue of £305m in 2024.
JTC Trustees is an investment vehicle which allows the ultimate controller or beneficiary of this holding to remain unknown. It paid £218,772.88 for a holding which now comprises 58.3% of the shares in Byline Times Ltd.
According to Companies House filings, Colegreave and Jukes each own 18.45% of the shares in Byline Times Ltd.
The other Byline companies that Jukes and Colegrave “control and effectively own” are Byline Media Holdings and Bylinefest Ltd.
JTC Trustees Limited also owns 17.8% of Bylinefest and 25.5% of Byline Media Holdings Ltd. It is a shell company based in the tax haven Jersey which is listed as dormant.
JTC Trustees is also the biggest single investor in Byline Media Holdings (having paid £240,070.95 for 25% of the shares).
Private companies owned by PLCs can be used by wealthy individuals to reduce tax bills or to keep investments private.
Byline Times said that “for reasons of their own”, multiple investors in the business have invested as “family groups” – and that they may have done so due to fear of their identities being exposed.
A further 3.9% of Byline Times Ltd is owned by three anonymously-backed companies (THL Ltd, KGH Ltd and RMH Ltd) which invested a total of £350,000 in September 2023 – an investment which valued the business at just under £9m. In cash terms, this is nearly half the total recorded investment in Byline Times shares.
Asked what these companies are, Peter Jukes told Press Gazette that the companies were “more family offices”.
He said he will “check on the status” of the companies adding: “That may take some time as we have heard nothing from them since they bought a very small percentage of Byline Times shares several years ago.”
Byline Times accounts for the year ending November 2020 show an additional £160,000 in the share premium account (which rose from £218,774 to £378,774).
The source of this investment, and the owner of the corresponding share in the business, has yet to be revealed by Byline Times.
The share premium account relates to money paid by investors above the estimated value of shares (so it is for shares bought at a premium).
Jukes said the £160,000 will be dealt with in a forthcoming Companies House return.
Updated comment from Byline Times (added after publication on 2/9/2025): “The article refers to an unknown investor of 160k in Byline Times share premium account. This is incorrect.
“It relates to an increase in the share premium account of 160k in the 30th November 2020 accounts. The initial allocation of shares was 7648 shares to LC Nominees as filed at Companies House on 18th October 2020 CS01.
“Share premium of 160k was created on the transfer to JTC Trustees (UK) Limited of the 7648 shares allocated to LC Nominees as filed at Companies House on 24th March 2021.”
In total 63.24% of the shares in Byline Times Ltd are held anonymously.
In terms of declared cash investment, more than 99% of the total £728,772 paid for Byline Times Ltd shares has been done so anonymously.
Max Mosley and Byline
The late former F1 tycoon and press reform campaigner Max Mosley invested £50,000 and his close friend and former lawyer Stephen Kinsella bought £30,000 of shares in Byline Media Holdings. Both made further investments for undisclosed amounts in Bylinefest Ltd
A further £359,119 has been invested in Bylinefest Ltd via the purchase of premium shares, but it is not possible to discern from published accounts who owns these shares.
Jukes said that Max Mosley “made two small investments in Byline Media and Bylinefest before the newspaper was even mooted. His small shareholding in those companies has passed to his estate since his death.”
Jukes said that despite difficulties caused by the pandemic, the three companies have made a total of £8m in revenue from crowdfunding, ticket sales and subscriptions since they were launched.
Jukes said: “Byline Times has turned a profit in the last two years. The festival was hit hard by Covid, and we had to cancel two festivals, but we are gradually turning around those losses with two festivals last year, at Dartington and WOMAD and Keele this year.
“We will return to WOMAD next year. TV, audio and books are beginning to increase their revenues and Byline Media will be in the black as Byline Times repays its licensing fee.”
The prospectus revealed that Byline Times Ltd, which is not obliged to report detailed profit and loss information to Companies House, generated revenue of more than £1m in 2024, an increase of 22% compared to 2023.
The bulk of that 2024 turnover, £881,000, came from its reported 30,000 print and digital subscriptions, with a further £67,000 generated from newsstand sales of the monthly print edition.
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