The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times have been put up for sale by their publisher, SMG.

The cross-media group announced plans to sell the three Glasgow-based regional titles along with the rest of its publishing division, which includes 11 business to business and specialist consumer magazines and its online content and advertising business, s1.

Chief executive Andrew Flanagan said that publishing was no longer core to the group and it instead intended to concentrate on “national positions in the faster growing media sectors”.

He also said the sale would ensure SMG had the flexibility to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the Communications Act next year. He added that in an increasingly consolidated newspaper and magazines sector the ongoing success of the newspapers would be best assured as part of a larger publishing network.

The group is hoping that the sale – likely to be referred to the Competition Commission – would be completed by the middle of next year.

News of the sale follows increasing speculation that the group was planning to sell its publishing interests and it has been reported that Archant, DMGT and the Barclay Brothers, publishers of the Scotsman, have all previously expressed an interest in the three newspaper titles.

In December there were rumours that the whole group might be sold for £850m, with reports in the national press suggesting a French investment bank had drawn up a bid.

SMG has owned the three newspapers since 1996 when it bought them from Caledonian Publishing for £120m.

The Herald was established in 1783 has a daily circulation of 91,400, while the Sunday Herald, which was launched in February 1999, sells around 60,500 copies a week. The Evening Times has a circulation of 98,760.

SMG currently employs some 1,700 staff, with around 800 of those in the publishing division – 690 of them on the newspapers. Last year 50 jobs were lost in the publishing division.

SMG, which also owns Virgin Radio, Scottish TV and the Grampian ITV franchise announced the sale as it posted interim results showing a slump in pre-tax profits.

Excluding the group’s online activities, they fell to £11.5m for the six months ending June 30, 2002, compared with £20m in 2001.

Turnover fell by £9m to £130.7m.

Directors said £4m of the fall in profits was due the decline in ITV advertising and reduced network programme commissions.

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