That Time Haim Saban Wanted To Buy Jared Kushner’s Newspaper

Image by Getty Images

By Nathan Guttman March 9, 2018

In what could sound like the unlikeliest of deals, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and top adviser, tried to sell a newspaper he owned to a major Hillary Clinton donor and a progressive media operative.

After the elections, as Kushner prepared to join Trump at the White House, he reportedly tried to find buyers for Observer Media, the newspaper company he owned, according to Buzzfeed. The potential buyers were Haim Saban, a Hollywood billionaire and top Clinton donor, and David Brock, a liberal media figure.

Saban and Brock weren’t the first choice for Kushner and his brother-in-law Joseph Meyer. They first tried conservative media groups including the National Inquirer, but when talks did not lead to a deal, they moved on to Democrats. Brock had said at the time that he is interested in setting up a “progressive Breitbart.” Saban wanted the publication to have a Washington presence.

Negotiations with Saban and Brock eventually led to no results, as both sides could not reach an agreement on the price of the Observer.

A year later, Saban and Kushner would meet on stage at the Saban Forumin Washington where Kushner gave a rare public talk. During his on-stage conversation with Saban, the Israeli-born media mogul revealed that in 2010 he received a letter from Kushner, expressing his admiration to Saban.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO