Northcliffe Media could be sold off in a deal which would see it form a new company with regional publisher Iliffe News and Media, according to reports.
Media reports have said that the parent companies of the two regional publishers are in talks to pool their local newspaper titles into a new business headed by former Mirror Group chief executive David Montgomery.
Trinity Mirror has confirmed it is also involved in the talks, with a view to buying a minority stake in the proposed new firm, although it has not yet made an offer.
The move could see a new company formed called Local World, in which Iliffe parent company the Yattendon Group would be a founder shareholder.
Both Northcliffe and Iliffe have confirmed that talks over their futures are taking place but no deal has yet been finalised.
It is thought Northcliffe has been valued at around £100m and its parent company DMGT would retain a minority stake in the new business.
A statement from DMGT said: “In response to media speculation, DMGT confirms that it is currently in talks regarding the future of Northcliffe Media.
“No deal or transaction has been agreed, but if these talks move to the point where agreement is reached, an announcement will be made to the market.”
The Financial Times reports that the under the proposed deal “Yattendon would take equity in the new company in exchange for all its newspapers and DMGT would maintain a minority stake as well as receiving some money upfront.”
A spokeswoman for the Yattendon Group told HTFP: “In response to recent press speculation, I can confirm that Yattendon Group has held preliminary discussions with David Montgomery about becoming founder shareholders in a new local media company.
“We have a shared vision about the long term opportunities for local media but at this stage there is no certainty whether these discussions will lead to a satisfactory conclusion.”
It is understood that Montgomery would also have a stake in the new company, which is expected to receive financial backing from a number of banks.
A statement from Trinity Mirror said: “Trinity Mirror plc can confirm it is in discussions towards taking a minority interest in a new company comprising the assets of Northcliffe Media, a division of DMGT plc and Iliffe News & Media, a division of Yattendon Group plc.
“No offer has been made and there is nothing further to report at this stage.”
There has been speculation over the last few years that Northcliffe Media would be sold off and in February last year DMGT chief executive Martin Morgan said the company was “open to any worthwhile approaches concerning consolidation”.
Northcliffe was put up for sale by DMGT in 2005 but later taken off the market after the bids failed to match the company’s valuation of the business.
Northcliffe Media publishes 84 regional newspapers across the UK, including the Leicester Mercury and the Bristol Post.
Iliffe News and Media owns three daily newspapers including the Cambridge News, along with 25 weekly newspapers plus two Sunday newspapers and four monthly glossy magazines.
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The same former chief sub-editor David Montgomery who, in 2007, said there was no need for sub-editors because they “check things that don’t need checking”?
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Chris, sounds like we need more of those!! Recently in Leicester we have had a front page headline that spelt Aghan instead of Afghan, and about 8 months ago we have page 3 of the Grimsby Telegraph end up on page 3 of the Leicester Mercury!
I suspect we will get the usual Pie eating, grey, weary cynics on here, being negative about everything, but the above story sounds like a sensible option. Merge the two companies, have a new direction, and maybe, just maybe, the weary cynics (You know who you are!!) will get the hint & step aside for people that care about the company they work for. Too many people sit behind their keyboards & bite the hand that feeds them. Northcliffe could offer each employee a million pounds & they would still be moaning.
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and with Montgomery at the helm, god bless all who sail on them. They’ll need it
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Dear All,
If this industry is to survive even the next five years then it has to STOP giving away online & digital services for nothing. If readers really want a 24×7 service, then they will pay hansomely for it. This means publishers have to charge at least £100 per month for that service. If readers don’t want it, then we should stop providing it & encourage readers to buy vastly more profitable hard copies.
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Chris Youett, Coventry
I agree, in no other industry do anyone give their product away for free…… BUT £100 a month……… Really? Do you know anyone that would pay that? £100 a month just to read the local news is just crazy.
This is Leicestershire currently gets 500k users per month. If we charged a 24 hour access period of £2, a week period for £4 or a 12 month subscription for £2.50 per month, even if only 5% of the user base (25k) paid for this, this would bring in revenue of over 750k per year………..
But Steve Aukland has already said that he will never look at changing the websites, giving them back to the local companies (And ditching the horrific obession with the thisis fictional brand) or charging for them, and previous profitable websites run by the Express & Star have had their paywalls removed by new MD’s…….
So what would we rather have – 500,000 users a month paying us diddly squat…… or 25k users a month paying us 750k a year?
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Chris, that is one of the most idiotic comments I’ve read. Not all of it – there is a good point there about not giving content away. But £100 per month? Don’t be so silly. This smacks of a die-hard print hack mentality. The fact is that people read their news online in greater number than ever before. They will pay for this content but it appears that they will be more likely to do so if this is part of an app for a phone or tablet. The industry should put out taster news and breaking news online and keep the rest for paid-for apps. The newspapers will be valuable for those who still prefer print. Print media needs to cater for all possible markets. Once content has been created, why restrict it to one outlet by charging such a ridiculous sum of money?
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Figures for thought boys and girls……
1994 Northcliffe buys Nottingham Evening Post for £93M
2000 Newscom goes to Newsquest for £444M
2002 Johnston Press buys Regional Independent Media’s 50-odd regional newspapers for £560M
2012 Northcliffe’s 84 surviving titles valued at £100M – -cheap as chips or you just getting what you pay for nowadays?
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Chris Youett, in a recession would the average person stump up that kind of money to see local news online?
Let me see Facebook free, Twitter free, BBC news free. Even full internet access with max broadband and rolling 24/7 sky news (which you can also get on your tablet) only costs you about £40 a month (including the sky website), so what makes you think people will pay £100 for websites and news, which technically are of a much poorer quality that the ones they get for free and which are paid for by advertising?
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Popee
What you forget to mention is in the 10 year gap between 2002 and 2012 was dramatic the rise of the internet & digital age. Newspapers took too long to catch up. Look at Autotrader – now making 100’s of millions a year, established for 10-12 years…….. compared to Motors.co.uk – only established 5 years ago and so far behind it’s unreal. The same with yell.com – Northcliffe tried to build the ‘GoFind’ network, but the concept was 10 years too late.
The executives that were in charge of the companies 10-15 years ago need to be named & shamed, they are the ones that have driven the company value down due to their lack of planning, lack of ambition & lack of knowlege about the digital revolution. They sat in their ivory towers, arrogent & ignorant to the chaging world & have been left behind. We can blame the current management all we want, but the fact is they can only work with what they’ve got.
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£100 a month to read websites is ridiculous. Why would you do that when you get get news free everywhere else? Agree with Biller, bosses have been hopelessly behind the times with their heads in the sands as the digital revolution happened around them.
The executives responsible have taken golden handshakes and left for the golf course to live off their good pensions. As for the rest of us…
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“No deal or transaction has been agreed, but if these talks move to the point where agreement is reached, an announcement will be made to the market.”
Market first, employees second…change management communication at NML has always been so poor from the top in my experience!
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At least if you charged £100 pcm for access the BBC and freelancers for nationals would have to stump up for it – how else would they get their local news coverage?
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Bob – there is such a thing as LOCAL BBC RADIO!!!!
As an ex reasonably senior group manager I can tell you all that I and a number of group execs got totally fed up of trying to make the board listen. Only one ever did and he left far too soon and in my opinion should have been the MD after AD got fired – sorry left the company by mutual consent. Sadly in my experience they only took notice of very expensive “consultants”!! As far as online is concerned again a number of group managers looked at linking up with major classified (property,motors and recruitment) players instead of going solo. But I feel that certain brand “issues” got in the way of that as well.
By the way does anyone remember what the company valuation was back in 2005 pre the cancelled sale of NML (I do)?
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I understand that at least three Northcliffe newspaper offices have not renewed the leases on their now rented buildings which expire in 2013……should we be reading something into this?
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