Elon Musk buys Imperial newspaper, renames FelX
Billionaire could only afford FelX (formerly Felix) following losses on X (formerly Twitter), paying child support, and spending millions on Trump's campaign.
In a joint statement, the Union and Elon Musk, the world's richest man, have publicly announced a takeover of Imperial College London's student newspaper, previously known as Felix. A statement released by the official FelX Instagram page on Monday announced the rebrand, stating that the new direction of the paper as a right-wing "freedom of speech" news source be visually in line with the branding of Musk's other ventures.
"The era of imperial [sic] brainrot is over lol," Musk communicated on X (formerly Twitter). The newly nominated director of the freshly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has promised to overhaul the journalistic institutions of universities abroad in an effort to uphold freedom of speech in the United States' closest ally.
The announcement comes only hours after President-elect Trump posted on Truth Social, a platform he part-owns, "Felix has become an outlet of DEMOCRATIC fake news. [sic] This may be the WORST student outlet in the UK – maybe the WORLD". He later denounced the "tremendous rambling" of editorials and expressed concern at what he perceives as the newspaper's "liberal, liberal, liberal" bias.
The appointment of the full directorial board has been delayed amid student-led contestation. Amid the controversy, Musk's team promised not to meddle with FelX's editorial stance or journalistic independence. A mere reshuffle of sections was announced for purposes of "increased efficiency". To save costs, the Environment and Science sections are set to disappear. Culture and Books will be rebranded, and renamed to Memes and Podcasts, respectively. The Comments section will be split into two – Approved Opinion and Nonsense Opinion – with submissions published in either at the discretion of the board. Some believe the Business section's replacement, Cars & Rockets & Neurochips & More Cars, might push its writing team to shift its focus slightly and specialise in more promising sectors. Catnip has been banned due to Musk being disgusted at satire targeted at him. He deemed the pieces "unfunny", and "poorly written". He clarified "you can't offend me", but promptly banned the word catnip from all comment sections across all platforms, and was later seen crying on livestream.
A leaked memo from November 24th seems to indicate that the position of Editor-in-Chief will in the future be open to anyone for a one-time purchase of £49.99, while writers will be subject to a freemium model. According to the draft, writers will be able to publish the first 150 words of any piece for free, with each extra dozen words costing an additional 10 pence.
