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Johnston Press ‘considering merger’ with local press rivals

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Johnston Press has opened the way to potential merger talks with other regional publishers after chief executive Ashley Highfield said:  “You could get it done.”

The publisher is said to be sizing up its local press rivals with a view to merging with one of them.

Speaking to the Telegraph after yesterday’s half-yearly results, Ashley revealed that JP’s laywers had been looking at “potential combinations” of regional press groups as a “desk exercise.”

A report in the paper today claimed that Newsquest, now run by former senior JP executive Henry Faure Walker, was seen as a “good potential fit” with Johnston Press by analysts.

The possible merger talks come after Trinity Mirror was said to be in discussions earlier this year with Local World about taking full control of the David Montgomery-run group, in which it already holds a 19.8pc stake.

Trinity Mirror is also understood to have been looking at a deal to buy Richard Desmond’s Express Newspapers titles.

JP chief executive Ashley Highfield, pictured, told the Telegraph: “The recent fall in our share price has made us crisper on what we’d be prepared to pay for things. All the mood music is there.

“Our lawyers have looked at a number of different combinations as a desk exercise and you could get it done. You might have to sell one or two things but for the most part there is not much overlap.”

Ashley said he was confident that mergers of local newspaper groups could pass regulatory hurdles.

And he added that JP could also seek smaller deals with other newspaper publishers using its £30m cash reserve.

The possibility of merger deals by the Johnston Press comes after yesterday’s result showed a 4.6pc fall in revenues and cost-cutting of £7.6m in the first six months of 2015.

The publisher said it had been hit by a “slowdown” in general trading from April to June, although July had seen some improvement.

A Johnston Press spokeswoman said the company did not want to comment further.

38 comments

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  • August 12, 2015 at 11:18 am
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    Says it all when a spokeswoman doesn’t want to say anything. Anyway, back to the rub. I feel employees of anyone merging with this shower had better start realigning their career pronto. I know we’re all doomed in the medium term but this would hasten the process and my future of strategic victuals accumulations on local superstore display structures comes ever closer.

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  • August 12, 2015 at 11:21 am
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    Desk exercise…crisper…mood music…does this man have any idea himself what he is talking about? JP lost the right to be newspapers owners long ago and instead of mergers they should be selling off titles to anyone who still wants to produce local newspapers as they were some years ago. That’s if there are any left. This means covering courts, inquests, council meetings, holding public bodies to account, investigative journalism, informing , educating and entertaining readers – and employing sub-editors. No more ‘right first time’, no more far flung so called ‘subbing hubs’, no more templates and no more newsrooms of the future. No more silly titles like ‘content editors’ and ‘multimedia reporters’. Just an editor, news editor, subs and reporters covering local news and sport. And no more websites unless it is to advertise the paper and give brief tasters of stories to appear in print. It’s not too late…is it?

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  • August 12, 2015 at 12:06 pm
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    @ex-JP… Yes. The using-websites-to-give-tasters-of-stories is properly off of the 90s.

    Here are some things:

    Older people buy papers – old people will die soon
    Young people do not buy papers, they look online – they will not die soon

    So what’s the best way of offering news to the readers of the future?

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  • August 12, 2015 at 12:14 pm
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    Luka: In a way that appropriately rewards those offering it or no-one will want to do the job. In that case non-broadcast journalism is dead and gone. But maybe that is the future…

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  • August 12, 2015 at 12:18 pm
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    This indeed may be the only way out for JP because its share price shows a shocking lack of confidence from the City. But grafting one sick plant on to another sick plant is not likely to bring forth much fruit.
    Meanwhile Ashley’s bemusing mutterings must be deeply worrying. Does he talk like this at home?
    Pray for anyone still working for JP Newsquest et al. A hard rain’s gonna fall before too long.

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  • August 12, 2015 at 12:49 pm
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    JP merging with Scroogequest? The greatest idea since the chocolate tea-pot…

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  • August 12, 2015 at 1:47 pm
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    “The recent fall in our share price has made us crisper on what we’d be prepared to pay for things. All the mood music is there.’

    WTF?

    You can take the suit out of W1A but you can’t take the W1A out of the suit…

    ‘Great’

    ‘Absolutely’

    ‘Brilliant’

    ‘So that’s all good then?’

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  • August 12, 2015 at 1:48 pm
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    Share price is the equivalent of 2.17p at the moment if you ignore the share consolidation. Nuff said

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  • August 12, 2015 at 1:55 pm
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    At this rate, they could all drag each other under. Why would Newsquest seek a merger when, with JP in such a mess, they could probably buy it outright at a knockdown price?
    Whatever transpires, I just pity those still clinging to the wreckage of their jobs. I couldn’t see two sets of back office staff surviving any merger and I expect content sharing will be high on the list too.

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  • August 12, 2015 at 2:22 pm
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    Surely any merger will result in long term redund {sorry,delete that… } efficiency savings…..to enable a cross-over of working systems for the remaining highly motivated ,cross- content and multi media gatherers and disseminators….who will be looking forward to digitise their editorial platforms to enable increase the functionality of their outgoing and harvested products across all relevant products………..

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  • August 12, 2015 at 2:43 pm
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    Everyone in JP is feeling much crisper in the newsroom of the future. Worked to a frazzle in fact!
    #getashaveandwearatieash!

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  • August 12, 2015 at 2:46 pm
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    Luka…No! Tasters ‘off of the 90s’…not exactly sure what you mean. Have you been talking to Ashley? I didn’t start working for JP until 2000 and we didn’t have a website then. I would agree in general that old people die sooner. You may also be right that fewer young people buy papers and look online. But if they can’t find it online then they might buy more papers. Geddit?

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  • August 12, 2015 at 2:50 pm
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    Ex-JP, you’re making the mistake of thinking that the newspaper is your product. It’s not. The content within it is.

    The traditional way of creating that content (editor, news editor, subs, reporters) is expensive and, with sales in continued decline, it cannot continue.

    It’s like trying to keep a corner shop open when a big supermarket has just opened down the road. However, unlike this rather simplistic analogy, the newspaper model is much more complex. Selling what you see as the product – your newspaper – has rarely ever been enough to pay the bills. It might cover the cost of print and distribution and, maybe, even a few staff but it’s always been advertising which has driven print.

    If revenues dry up, cuts have to be made, new revenue streams need to be found and mergers or sell-offs need to be considered. My preferred option would always be sell-offs to a local consortium rather than being at the mercy of regional/national shareholders.

    It then all comes down to audience, putting your content on the appropriate platforms and finding a way to sell alongside it.

    While Luka is absolutely right about web tasters being consigned to the 90s, his view that old people buy papers and young people look online is also a little old fashioned and slightly condescending.

    At the papers I’ve worked for, the average age for newspaper purchases, according to Jicreg reports, was between 35 and 45. Hardly old!

    And, according the ONS, the largest age group for internet usage in Q1 of 2015 was 25-34, closely followed by 45-54. Hardly young!

    The point is, it’s not about age. It’s about audience, in particular, an audience with money to spend!

    Newspapers have trusted historic brands with an existing audience which can be persuaded to trust them online too.

    However, advertisers want to reach their most appropriate audience in the most cost-effective way possible.

    If newspapers can make that leap and genuinely start to help local businesses by charging according to measurable results, rather than just paying for print or web space, they may have a much longer and more prosperous future – regardless of the print sales or website figures.

    This is where the regional publisher model will always fail to deliver locally in digital. They’re only interested promoting national brands by charging for a high volume of impressions/page views across their wider networks. It keeps the shareholders happy!

    These proposed mergers will just delay the inevitable as local audiences are diluted and local advertisers find better ways to spend their budgets.

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  • August 12, 2015 at 2:51 pm
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    As good an admission that he knows he has screwed up as we are likely to get!

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  • August 12, 2015 at 3:12 pm
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    I said recently that Ashley would have another six months at the helm of JP and I think that will be proved right.

    Given that all the major newspaper firms seem to be ailing who do we see as JP suitors?

    Back in 2013 the Newspaper Society said Trinity Mirror had a weekly circulation of 9.1million compared to Newsquest with 5.7m, Local World 5m and JP 4.9m.

    I’ve worked for several of these players over the decades and none impress as being able to fight their way out of a teabag.

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  • August 12, 2015 at 4:26 pm
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    I was going to comment on yesterday’s AH ramblings, but just like buses along comes two.
    I’m perplexed by this guy’s bizarre take on things (as by the sounds of it are most of you).
    He makes no sense whatsoever, uses terms that quite frankly would get you punched down the pub, creates figures which are pure fantasy, and all this from an MD of one of the largest media companies in the UK! I’m so glad I got out from his moronically-run outfit.
    Keep up the good work Ash! God knows we need a laugh each day.

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  • August 12, 2015 at 5:17 pm
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    Careers drowning in a sea of incompetence. Man the lifeboats…

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  • August 12, 2015 at 5:46 pm
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    JP is in merger talks with Newsquest. The merger will happen. It is hard to imagine a worse case scenario if you are unfortunate enough to be employed by either group. Good luck.

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  • August 12, 2015 at 6:04 pm
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    If digital wee going to work it would have by now!! Ashley is flogging a dead horse.Local weekly advitisers dont want a micro sized ad on someone’s smart phone and that is being proved every day as they shy away from digital. Look at JP websites..full of PPI and national company ads.the fact is there are loads of people who still enjoy their printed newspaper. Just because Ashley et al say Digital is the way forward dosen’t mean people will follow. Its the Book v Kindle arguement all over again, however without local ads digital is doomed….unless JP are prepared to give the news away for free. JP have deliberately lowered the quality oftheir papers and increased cover prices in order to drive readers over to digital. But if peddling news online isn’t profiable then whats thepoint. The public think everything on the net is free and wont pay for it and more importantly local advertisers dont like or want it. Unfotunately the papers have been let go so badly that they are now unattractive to both readers and advertisers too. I can see the whole edifice collapsing unless local papers are sold back to people who know what they’re doing and have a love of print. Leave the dead horse alone Ashley…in fact just leave!!!!!

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  • August 12, 2015 at 10:44 pm
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    “The recent fall in our share price has made us crisper on what we’d be prepared to pay for things. All the mood music is there.”

    Ashley, come with me at 8am as I knock on the front door of a mother and father whose son has died that morning in a motorcycle accident. My newsdesk wants 150 words by 9am and more words and more words as the day goes by. They want pictures off the mantelpiece and if I don’t get them my life is made a misery by the layer of management above me. I get all the swear words from Hell hurled at my direction by alpha males and females. WTF do you know about this job? What’s that old saying? Never tell anybody to do something you can’t do yourself. How do you sleep at night? Upside down no doubt!

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  • August 12, 2015 at 11:44 pm
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    It’s all coming home to roost and yet Ashley, digging the JP grave, continues to spout gibberish. How does he get away with it?

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  • August 13, 2015 at 7:17 am
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    Please, htfp, review this crazy policy of calling everyone by their first name. No-one on the industry coalface (your readers htfp) thinks of Highfield as “Ashley” except perhaps Newsquest’s Henry and the richly-rewarded designer shoes brigade in the JP inner circle. I know you have been asked before and have defended this style, but please think again. Fine for a trainee winning a law exam award but for a CEO or industry heavyweight it’s just ridiculous. Steve Dyson, are you with me on this? I would like your opinion. Of course it’s the Ed’s call but (ducks) the Editor is simply wrong here.

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  • August 13, 2015 at 8:13 am
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    12m UK users now have ad blocking software on their devices. An 82% growth in the last year. This narrow minded pursuit of growing audience numbers on-line, at any cost to the core business, in order to monetise these platforms by selling “inventory” as opposed to engaged readership is doomed. If JP and the like had invested as much time, energy and money in developing distinct local content across print titles, supported by complementary local web portals (not backfill bargain basements for agencies to park clients in) then this could have been a different story. Where’s the money in digital first when you’ve no unique content worth paying for and the reader can now download a free app to block all adverts you are trying to serve?

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  • August 13, 2015 at 8:35 am
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    Reader generated content not working then?

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  • August 13, 2015 at 9:04 am
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    Since HoldtheFrontPage is itself a part of the regional press industry, it would seem to us to be overly stiff and formal to refer to people within the industry by surnames and courtesy titles – as we do, for instance, with politicians and other ‘external’ figures – while referring to people by their surnames alone (eg ‘Highfield’) just seems disrespectful – that is, after all, how journalists refer to criminals in court reporting! The current policy strikes me as a happy medium.

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  • August 13, 2015 at 9:58 am
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    “Mood music”…you’d think Highfield was on a summer cruise rather than in something where so many jobs and livelihoods are at stake.

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  • August 13, 2015 at 10:25 am
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    We have had subbing hubs. Now we’re having entire company hubs.
    And as for candidates for merger, I wonder if Sir Ray Tindle is interested?

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  • August 13, 2015 at 11:16 am
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    Luca—-I take your point but Guess what? I was a Newspaper Sales Manager from 1979 until made redundant by JP in 2004. During that time older people bought papers and younger people did not, nothing has changed. Granted the internet has slowed sales to the generation that start to click into purchasing a Newspaper when they need a house, Job, getting married etc. Remember Newspapers in Education? didn’t last long and only proved to aid bulk sales (Which I was not in favour of) much preferring to work with Editorial colleagues on long term nurturing of readers. Anyway to the point I was trying to get across….”If you let it die, it will” Challenging times, yes, impossible to get back, No. If the product is the best it can be you cannot beat picking up and reading a hard copy. The problem with the internet is the “Older generation are not as computer / tablet literate and are being turned off by lack of quality in their Newspaper. They leave but are not being replaced at the younger level by new readers, result decline. Now consider how many Newspapers are biting the hand that feeds them. To make up for loss in revenue they raise cover prices and cut Newsagents terms and the amount of closures are escalating all the time as they struggle to compete. How loyal are these trading partners to the Publishers products they are trying to sell? Very much less than they were I would suggest.This makes me sad in more ways than one.

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  • August 13, 2015 at 2:18 pm
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    Antiquarian – interesting suggestion about Sir Ray Tindle though I think you’ll find he’s already a leading JP shareholder. So perhaps not such an interesting suggestion after all!

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  • August 13, 2015 at 3:57 pm
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    …and, of course, when some regional merger does occur the biggest beneficiaries are likely to be senior executives such as Highfield who will leave with massive bonuses.
    The monopolists must be broken up by Act of Parliament and made to hand over the titles to journalism start-ups funded by banks on low interest terms.
    The banks say they believe in Britain as much as MPs claim to. Let us see them put their money where their mouths are.
    This would guarantee jobs for all the youngsters coming out of college and strengthen democracy in the regions.

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  • August 13, 2015 at 5:45 pm
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    This could be make or break for once-thriving papers down South that JP have ruined. What a tragedy. Mr H will walk away with small fortune. He has the last laugh on us.

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  • August 14, 2015 at 8:35 am
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    Didn’t they play ‘mood music’ as the titanic sunk below the waves too?
    Just sayin

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  • August 14, 2015 at 9:29 am
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    well said Rambler. Yes, Ray Tindle is certain to have a big say in all of this – and probably a good job too for all those who believe that the value of/need for good journalism is not yet dead.

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  • August 15, 2015 at 12:29 am
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    I reckon if you end up with a gigantic “local” (!) newspaper monopoly, which would inevitably become a sort of slightly, very slightly, less superficial version of Take A Break with local nibs & listicles, you’ll get even more independent green shoots from the ground up. Might not be so bad.

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  • August 20, 2015 at 3:51 pm
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    And so the JP share price plummets by another 10% below the 100p mark – or less than 2p if you ignore the ‘consolidation’. The Ashley-led geniuses and their bean counters were told all along by people of vast talent and experience that they were up the proverbial gum tree. But would they listen…?;

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