A regional publishing boss says “nothing has been decided” amid reports that it is considering selling off some or all of its newspaper titles.
According to a report on Sky News, JPIMedia is sounding out advisers about launching an auction of parts or all of the business.
Prospective advisers are understood to have been interviewed in the last few weeks, with an appointment said to be imminent.
But JPIMedia has responded to the speculation by saying “nothing has been decided”, with chief executive David King, pictured, moving to reassure staff at the company’s titles this morning.
In his report, Sky News city editor Mark Kleinman wrote: “City insiders said this weekend that the likeliest outcome was the sale of the i in one transaction, and the rest of the group in another.
“The likely valuations of the regional titles, which include the Yorkshire Post and Belfast News Letter, is unclear but is expected to reflect the dwindling financial prospects of news outlets hurt by the shift towards online, often free, rivals.
“The strategic review will be closely watched by JPIMedia’s roughly 2,000 staff, who endured an anxious period last November when the company was forced to call in administrators.”
In response to the story, David issued a memo to all staff this morning which has been seen by HTFP.
Wrote David: “While I would not normally comment every time there is media speculation about what we are doing, I appreciate that it can be unsettling if you have seen a story speculating about a potential sale of JPIMedia, hence this short note.
“Nothing has been decided and there is no formal sale process underway. We are developing business plans for the group, and as part of this process we are working with advisers, to help us and our new owners assess those plans and opportunities.
“There is a lot going on in our industry, which continues to face tough challenges. Takeovers are being attempted in the US, we saw an acquisition in Ireland only last week, and of course the government is responding to the Cairncross review. I have no doubt there will be more speculation about us over the coming weeks and months.
“The management team is very much focused on delivering 2019, and you will have seen a number of recent announcements around the editorial trial in the North East, new App launches etc.
“All are part of building a digital strategy that will secure a future for our titles and our staff. The next stage in that process is the SLT Strategy Day on 21 May.
“I will of course keep you up to date with any developments when I have something of substance to say. In the meantime please let me know if you have any thoughts, questions or concerns, either via your line manager, or direct.”
JPIMedia, which is made up of Johnston Press’s former debt holders. purchased the business in a so-called “pre-pack” deal in November after a brief period in administration.
It was subsqeuently revealed that a total of six offers were received for the regional publisher beforehand.
The company’s administrator Alix Partners said an offer of £2.5m was made for Sheffield daily The Star, the Sheffield Telegraph and the Doncaster Free Press, while a bid of £30,000 was also received for the Observer Series and West Sussex Gazette.
One offer of between £140m and £150m was made for the whole of the group, while a separate bid of between £96m and £120m for the group, excluding national daily the i, was also received.
Two separate bids for the i alone, worth £25m and £35m respectively, were also made, one of which is believed to have been from Daily Mail owner DMGT.
However, it was considered that none of the offers received, or any combination of them, would result in aggregate net proceeds sufficient to enable the group to repay its bonds in full.
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Here we go again – Why are they selling them off? To make money and leave the employees facing another uncertain future again?
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Nothing has been decided, say JPI – a company which only recently bought JP. That is a worrying comment for the staff who must be at their wits’ end with all the continued unwelcome stress. Yes, it’s business as usual in the offices with digital strategies being planned etc. But the financial control is outside the offices and that determines how long it will be business as usual.
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I don’t think there’s anything uncertain about it, part of a much longer term plan of sell offs and closures which will inevitably lead to job cuts, time for staff to update their cvs and put themselves first.
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JPs policy of ‘death by a thousand cuts’ has driven regional weekly papers into the ground and in-saleable. Why not just sell each weekly title off for £1 each and let someone with a healthier attitude to newspapers make a go of them. Digital has proved impossible to monetise. The only alternative is to go back to producing high quality products that the public want to read and advertisers want to use. We’ve gone from broadsheet to small mobile phone screen. Phone screen was NEVER gonna suit advertising. Newspapers weren’t broken, it was just greedy directors who saw a possible end to production and transport costs who decided to ‘fix it’. They never anticipated the unattractiveness of digital to advertisers. Newspaper websites should just be used for breaking news and previewing that week’s paper. It’s not rocket science!
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Dead digital horse
No business person in their right mind would be the slightest bit interested in buying tired old has been newspapers, their tarnished reputation goes before them and would simply be a hindrance.
The future is with new independent publishers opening their own local weekly titles in areas vacated by the failing traditional paper, it’s happening across the uk and is the way forward for hyper local news,
it’s also ridiculous to ignore digital media,it’s how we get our news, immediate and as it happens in our hand or in our desks and on a constantly rolling basis, not having to wait a day or more to read old news in a paper, the issue now is how to make it pay other than by providing essential unique content unavailable elsewhere, professionally written and covered and with enough local traffic to persuade business people to advertise alongside it, but looking at the general state of the big fives on line output of click attracting non news stories,pointless listicles and non local pieces they’re a miles away from there and will be for some time yet.
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Did anyone really imagine they wouldn’t be sold off?
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This is exactly what I said was going to happen on here after JPI came about. They’ve unloaded the biggest burden in the pension deficit and through the tender process they already have some offers on the table for certain titles within the group that they can now sell harder due to the above. It’s sickening to be honest and you’d think in a perfect world any money they now gained should be paid back to pay for said deficit but alas it’ll go to lining peoples pockets.
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Here is a great oppotunity for some of the few (still profitable) groups to buy then strip the exceedingly inexperienced management out of JPi and start selling advertising at grass roots level instead of spending most of the time imprisoning the few remaining sales staff in constant meetings. Oh! and that’ll relieve those poor handcuffed salespeople from the constant training on those useless sales systems like SalesFarce and Gemsgroan!
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If any editorial staff haven’t yet applied for the VR currently on offer, do it. Do it now.
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@the dead digital horse
It’s this belief that’s part of the problem. People don’t read print anymore, they have news to hand on their mobiles and prefer that for many reasons. Our digital site is doing great and the advertisers love it because they can track their ROI much more easily.
The former JP’s insistence of reducing staff and merging titles, so their papers had less of what their readers cared about was the start of their downfall. Ignoring digital and making it impossible to read content though all the pop-ups and surveys was the nail in the coffin.
JPI media now don’t appear to care. The business is owned by hedge fund managers who will just be looking to recoup their losses and maybe make a profit if they can.
The old editorial mantra used to be “give the people want they want” now it has to be “give the people what they want where they want it”.
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Interesting that Russ advocates “professionally written” content in the 151-word sentence he has managed to construct..
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Digger. I don’t think wonderful prose is needed for HTFP. (re Russ). But it is a “must” for newspapers and news websites. Sadly the standard of editing (where it exists) is generally poor. I think most of those who really knew the game long departed.
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