The Russian Indy?

You read the headline this week: Russian Billionaire Buys U.K.'s Independent for $1.49‎ 

In his early life in London Alexander Lebedev was a KGB man. "He is now businessman willing to make the investments he thinks necessary to produce a superior product that will win back readers and if that doesn't work then he would likely give up the ghost . That gives him an easier time than Rupert Murdoch who does not want to go down in history as the man who killed The Times of London even though it is now losing more than £1 million a week", says Philip M. Stone 

He said this week: "I invest in institutions which contribute to democracy and transparency, and at the heart of that are newspapers which report independently and campaign for truth. I am a supporter of in-depth investigative reporting and campaigns which promote transparency and seek to fight international corruption. These are things The Independent has always done well and will, I am sure, continue to do."

Quality papers have found it close to impossible to bring revenues and costs into equilibrium, let alone generate a sustainable profit margin. Robert Peston says his strategy may be to challenge the internet at its own game, by giving the Indie away (as he has already done with the Evening Standard in London) Advertising rules...

In addition to the London Evening Standard, the Lebedevs also co-own, with former president Mikhail Gorbachev, Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia's few pro-democracy newspapers. The paper has a reputation for independence and high-quality reporting and was where the celebrated journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered in 2006, worked.

The Guardian wrote that Lebedev will bring hope, not instant salvation