Newspaper Takeover Rumours

According to weekend press reports, both the Mirror Group and Observer are on bid alert.

It is rumoured that Mohamed Al-Fayed has offered £17.5m to buy the Observer. It is believed Al-Fayed wants the Observer as the flagship title of a publishing empire he is launching, which will include the re-birth of the deceased Punch magazine. The Guardian, owners of the Observer, rejected the initial bid, saying the title is not for sale. The Observer is suffering a steady decline, with its latest February ABC standing at 461,367, down over 12,000 copies on last February.

Mirror Group executives are also believed to be nervous, with almost 5% of the company’s shares having changed hands in the past 10 days. Carlton is believed to be a potential bidder, as is Tony O’Reilly’s Independent Newspapers. The Daily Mirror had a good February, up 51,000 copies, whereas its sister Sunday paper was down over 100,000 copies. The Independent titles, also part of the Mirror Group both lost around 4,000 copies year on year.