As he addressed staff at the London headquarters of the Telegraph Media Group last week, Mathias Döpfner, the German chief executive of Axel Springer and latest proprietor of the most traditional of conservative British newspapers, referred to his company’s decades-long pursuit of the venerable titles.

As staff nibbled Axel Springer-embossed biscuits, Döpfner also exchanged some distinctly European ribbing with the Daily Telegraph’s editor, Chris Evans, about Germany’s World Cup exit. However, it was clear to all that Döpfner’s ambitions for the titles were focused on another country and another continent.

“The Daily Telegraph can be a global Telegraph,” he said. “It’s a bold vision, but why not? The centre-right audience is vastly underserved in democracies around the world. So, the biggest opportunity is, of course, the US, the biggest media landscape in the world. What a big white spot the Telegraph can take advantage of.”

He also cited opportunities in Asia and Latin America, but breaking into the US is his dream for the Telegraph. According to insiders, Döpfner is a man in a hurry. US expansion is “a top priority since we see a lot of potential” said a spokesperson.

“Mathias’s ambition is to be a global media baron,” said Lionel Barber, the former Financial Times editor previously involved in the publication’s US expansion. “That means you have to be a player in America.

“He previously wanted to buy the FT. He’s looked at the [Wall Street] Journal. He’s been assembling assets like Politico, but it doesn’t have the scale of the Journal. He needed something else.”

Döpfner is not alone in spying an opportunity for a new US media outlet on the right. Senior media figures often observe that Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal has too much territory to itself, with its focus on financial news presenting a market opportunity for others to exploit.

The question being widely posed across the media world, however, is whether Döpfner and his team are ready for the enormous challenge – and expense – of making it big in America with a British act.

“There is a gap in the market,” said Andrew Neil, the former Sunday Times editor previously involved in expanding the Economist and the Spectator magazines in the US. “The legacy US newspapers are overwhelmingly on the liberal left.

“But in my experience, not every gap in the market is a profitable business opportunity. It will require enormous resources. America is a very expensive country to do business in and it’s a big country, so you need deep pockets.

“There’s no overnight success,” he said. “No one’s heard of the Telegraph. Even the title – the Telegraph – that’s what they used in cowboy movies … It’s a 10-year project.”

Axel Springer’s eye-watering £575m swoop for the Telegraph came after a rollercoaster three-year search for a new owner, which involved extraordinary briefing and counter-briefing, internal revolts, political intrigue and the passing of new laws to block state-backed owners.

In fact, the US plan is remarkably similar to the strategy hatched by the former CNN president Jeff Zucker, who headed a UAE-backed consortium’s doomed 2023 attempt to buy the Telegraph. The bid collapsed under political and internal Telegraph pressure.

Zucker planned to aim the titles at a free-market, socially conservative audience that long pre-dated the arrival of the Maga movement – more Ronald Reagan than Donald Trump. Supporters of the deal said that vision came with £100m spending money.

So far, Telegraph insiders have been left guessing at how the stateside push will be funded. Some believe money will have to come out of non-editorial posts at the group. Axel Springer also has a sizeable cash pile of its own.

Then there is the big question of how to position the Telegraph politically. Many UK media figures believe its politics have been arcing further to the right in recent years. While traditionally the bible of the British Conservative party, they observe a flirtation with Reform UK, headed by the rightwing populist and staunch Trump ally Nigel Farage.

Senior media figures in the US, however, point out it is not an easy time to be pitching at an increasingly fractured US right. “The kind of highbrow, Trump-curious right is about five people,” said one executive. “We’re in the middle of this huge backlash against the Trump administration, so it’s a tricky moment to jump into rightwing media.”

Others point to the success of Bari Weiss’s the Free Press, which has found an audience with its anti-woke, anti-cancel culture focus. However, media figures said the Free Press would also make it harder for the Telegraph to find an untapped, right-leaning audience.

Meanwhile, the Maga audience is served by Fox News and an assortment of podcasts and digital channels. “I do think there is potential if it doesn’t go excess Maga,” said Tina Brown, the ex-Vanity Fair editor and founding editor of the Daily Beast. “They could also go very strong on the new business stars of both tech and crypto.”

Such a position might appeal to Döpfner, whose own podcast series has featured OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and who has also interviewed rightwing figures including Farage and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. Such outings have caused nervousness among staff at Axel Springer’s German publications.

Some also see advantages in leaning into British journalism’s reputation for being more disruptive and mischievous than its US equivalent.

Other British publications on the right are prospering – the Spectator, the British conservative magazine, has its highest-ever subscriber numbers for its US edition, while Weiss has also shown a penchant for hiring British conservatives.

Brown said the Telegraph should be “less earnest than US papers with some of the Spectator flair”, as well as being “very scoopy on politics”. Neil also backed retaining the irreverence and brevity of British journalism. In making the leap to the US, however, Barber said the Telegraph had to hire US journalists for the job.

“You definitely need to hire local – you can’t just have redcoats turning up,” said Barber. “Then the question is, how do they connect to London? Because London is still the headquarters. You’ve got an editor in chief – Chris Evans – who’s been there a long time and knows what he’s doing.

“If there’s a big new venture in America, how does that link to the mother ship?”

Axel Springer will have the advantage of using its current US assets – Politico and Business Insider – to bolster and market the Telegraph. Yet any discussions over its chances of success quickly come back to money. Ultimately, how much investment is enough to establish a legacy UK news brand in the US?

“A lot more than they have in mind,” said Brown. “A fact that is always true in buying media.”