Associated Northcliffe Digital has acquired Simply Energy Ltd, which operates the SimplySwitch consumer website and call centre, for £22m.
SimplySwitch allows consumers to compare energy, home phone, mobile, broadband and credit card products, and then switch to the service that best meets their needs to save on household bills. SimplySwitch will continue to operate independently, with the management team on a three year earn out. The company itself will sit within AND’s Digital Publishing division, headed by Keith Perch, and will benefit from commercial partnerships within AND as well as the wider DMGT group.

Author and former BBC political correspondent Nick Jones launches a new series of live talks that will get under the skin of contemporary journalism. Talking with MediaWise Director Mike Jempson next week in the converted steamship SS Robin, West India Quay, in London, he will blow the whistle on the secret trade in information to journalists.
Nick Jones is the author of Soundbites and Spin Doctors, Sultans of Spin and The Control Freaks. His new book is Trading Information: Leaks, lies and tip-offs.

A UCLan journalism graduate has been offered a position at Sky News just months after finishing her course.
Kelly Sage, who chose the television route in the final year of her BA (Hons) Journalism degree, will start work as a junior VT Operator at Sky News and will be responsible for what pictures go out on the air for international stories.

Investigative journalist Don Hale believes there are parallels with the Barry George conviction for murdering TV presenter Jill Dando and the case of Stephen Downing, who spent more than 30 years in prison for the murder of a woman in Bakewell, Derbyshire.
The conviction was overturned after years of campaigning by the former Matlock Mercury editor, who is now with North Wales Newspapers and has submitted fresh evidence to the authorities on the Dando case.
Speaking to the Independent On Sunday about George’s conviction, he said: “Barry is not the sort of guy you’d want home for tea but did he commit this brutal murder? No. This is a massive miscarriage of justice.”