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Enlarged Trinity Mirror plans £3.2m savings on content operation

Local World logoThe newly-enlarged Trinity Mirror is looking to deliver up to £12m cost savings following its takeover of Local World – including £3.2m on “content generation.”

But chief executive Simon Fox has played down the importance of cost synergies, saying the £220m deal was rather about “investment and growth.”

Cost synergies were listed among the four key benefits of the proposed deal, along with extending TM’s digital reach, creating a “stronger and more resilient” organisation, and making TM the biggest regional publisher in the UK.

Within the £10-12m of savings identified, the biggest saving will come from central management costs which is expected to yield £3.5m.

Among senior executives leaving the newly-enlarged business will be LW chief executive David Montgomery and corporate development officer Lisa Gordon, although others are expected to follow.

Other savings are likely to come from content generation (3.2m), advertising (£2.3m), digital (£1.6m) and printing and distribution (£1.4m.)

In media interviews following the announcement, Simon said the  group was “absolutely not” looking to close titles but would not rule out job cuts.

“In any deal you would expect there to be some synergies,” he said. “But this deal isn’t about synergies. There are no specific plans. It is about investment and growth.”

The press announcement stated:  “The enlarged group will benefit from Trinity Mirror’s track record of successful cost management, creating scope for cost synergies.

“Cost synergies are expected to arise through the implementation of Trinity Mirror’s tight management of the cost base, by deploying know-how learned during the delivering of historic structural costs savings in Trinity Mirror’s own regional businesses and through the integration and future operation of certain activities on a group-wide basis across the enlarged group.

“The synergies identified above reflect both beneficial elements and relevant costs that will arise as a result of the acquisition.

“These synergies are contingent on the acquisition and could not be achieved by Trinity Mirror and Local World operating independently.”

The newly-enlarged group will have 157 daily and weekly titles, not including the ten in Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire that are to be sold back to Iliffe News and Media.

With a 30pc share of the regional market, this will not only make it the biggest regional publisher but the the largest newspaper publishing business in the UK combining both regional and national titles.

Trinity Mirror said the acquisition represented “a unique opportunity to transform the scale of the Trinity Mirror Group’s regional news business.”

It said the LW portfolio represented “a strong strategic and a complementary geographic fit with Trinity Mirror’s existing portfolio of titles and websites” which would provide advertisers with “a more efficient footprint of regions from which to advertise to their target audiences.”

“Trinity Mirror believes that the combination of the two businesses to create a regional and local multimedia business of scale will provide national advertisers with access to a larger footprint of key metropolitan areas,” said the statement.

“The combined regional businesses will also be more resilient in responding to the structural challenges faced by the industry and will thereby assist in safeguarding the future of independent local news and plurality of voices.”

8 comments

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  • October 28, 2015 at 3:36 pm
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    As a man who has created “efficient footprints” and spoken in a “plurality of voices” for more than 250 years I can see the logic of trimming £3.2m (an ominously precise figure) from ‘content generation’. I mean, how much does it cost for a gaggle of interns to compile lists of soap stars’ favourite foods, or put together galleries of comedy cats in festive headgear? That is what they mean by “content”, isn’t it? And “generation”? What else could it be?

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  • October 28, 2015 at 4:43 pm
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    “The enlarged group will benefit from Trinity Mirror’s track record of successful cost management, creating scope for cost synergies.

    “Cost synergies are expected to arise through the implementation of Trinity Mirror’s tight management of the cost base, by deploying know-how learned during the delivering of historic structural costs savings in Trinity Mirror’s own regional businesses and through the integration and future operation of certain activities on a group-wide basis across the enlarged group.

    “The synergies identified above reflect both beneficial elements and relevant costs that will arise as a result of the acquisition.

    “These synergies are contingent on the acquisition and could not be achieved by Trinity Mirror and Local World operating independently.”

    He could have said that in one word. CUTS.

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  • October 28, 2015 at 7:33 pm
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    Cost synergies simply means if you’ve got more than one person in a company doing primarily the same job, irrespective of location, they’ll get rid of as many of them that they can to get the work done = cost savings
    ” Other savings are likely to come from content generation (3.2m) ”
    That’s reporting staff to you and me and £3.2 m is a heck of a lot of salaries
    Dress it up as you wish but wholesale job cuts across all departments will have to happen to be able to make the mind of savings quoted here

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  • October 29, 2015 at 9:24 am
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    If you are in a features role on a LW paper, start planning your exit strategy now. And a reporter, sorry content generator? Get ready for shifts between 6am and 11pm. The shared content means exactly the same feature re-packaged in even more titles, with very little local connection. Unless you are in Liverpool.

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  • October 29, 2015 at 10:14 am
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    This just in from Mount Sinai:

    THE SEVEN DEADLY SYNERGIES:[ As outlined to the Profit {sic} Trinity Mirror]

    1.The employment of photographers

    2. Fully trained reporters.

    3. Sub-editors over the age of 16.

    4. Blasphemy – i.e. the mention of print, falling circulations, diving ad receipts etc.

    5. Sports reporters attending football matches for that 50 metres from the office

    6. Keeping your place of business within the community you serve.

    7. The use of straightforward plain English.

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  • October 29, 2015 at 11:10 am
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    cost synergies x forced redundancies + bonus fat cat pay outs – common sense = ………

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  • October 29, 2015 at 4:26 pm
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    Must say I enjoyed Sutlers piece. More than a grain of truth! Had me grinning like a ……………cat.

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