Regional newspaper owners feature in annual rich list

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by HoldtheFrontPage Staff Published 29 Apr 2008

Regional newspaper publishers featured again in the annual list of the 1,000 wealthiest people in the UK and Ireland.

The Sunday Times Rich List features rock stars to footballers, oil barons to construction company owners.

But there were still some spots occupied by media moguls who run a range of newspapers from high-selling regional dailies to free weeklies in small rural towns.

They include:

Lord Iliffe, whose family own the Yattendon Investment Trust, came in at joint 325th with an estimated wealth of £250m. Despite Lord Iliffe’s wealth increasing by £20m he slipped down the Sunday Times list by 12 places from his 2007 entry.
His entry said that Iliffe Media showed profits of £15.9m, in 2006. The company’s titles include the Burton Mail, Heartland Evening News and the Cambridge Evening News, which has recently appointed Colin Grant as its new editor-in-chief.
The Iliffe family also runs Channel Television and has interests in property and marinas.

Douglas Graham is chairman of the Claverley Group, based in Wolverhampton, which is run by him and his family. Mr Graham, (78), was placed at joint 854th with an estimated wealth of £95m, down from joint 572nd and £121m in the 2007 list.
The company owns the Express and Star, Britain’s biggest selling regional daily, the Shropshire Star and the Guernsey Press and Star as well as radio stations and paid-for and free weeklies across Shropshire, Staffordshire and the Black Country. The Graham family also has interests in property and other assets.

Sir Ray Tindle, (81), owns Tindle Newspapers which last year bought 27 weekly and nine niche titles from Trinity Mirror for £19m, taking the company’s total to well over 200 titles. He is ranked in joint 362nd spot with £225m, a drop of 43 places despite his estimated wealth remaining the same.
Along with the company’s radio stations, Tindle Newspapers owns the Cambrian News, Abergavenny Chronicle and West Somerset Free Press as well as the Wellington Weekly News which it bought from Northcliffe.

Viscount Rothermere and his family, owners of the Daily Mail and General Trust which runs Northcliffe Newspapers, was down 66 places to joint 138th with an estimated wealth of £600m. His listing said that DMGT had record sales of £2.24bn in 2007 yet his entry showed a drop of £320m.

The Thomson family, owners of DC Thomson, feature near to Lord Rothermere in 121st place. The Dundee-based firm owns both Aberdeen dailies, Evening Express and Press and Journal, The Courier in Dundee and the Beano.
Their estimated wealth is £670m, an increase of £36m but a fall of seven places in the rankings. They recently sold the broadcast rights for Dennis the Menace to the BBC for a TV series, due on screens next year.

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