It is reported in today’s FT that the regional newspaper group Newsquest has responded to a modest demand for shares by lowering the maximum price of shares from 290p to 270p. Brokers SBC Warburg Dillon Read and Merrill Lynch reduced the price after a share building exercise failed to show much demand for shares at… Continue reading Newsquest’s Brokers Cut Share Price
Anglo-Dutch information group Reed Elsevier has released details of a merger deal with Dutch publishers Wolters Kluwer. The new group is valued at £17.5bn and will be the world’s largest scientific publishing and information group with sales in 1996 of more than £5bn. News of the merger caused shares in all three companies (Reed International,… Continue reading Reed Elsevier To Merge With Dutch Rival
The battle of the breakfast shows (see yesterday’s Evans And Beamish) appears to have been won by Chris Evans, according to reviews in today’s papers. The Daily Telegraph comes out in strongest criticism of the new Radio 1 duo of Zoe Ball and Kevin Greening, saying that their show sounded as if they didn’t really… Continue reading Evans Seen To Triumph
DMG Radio, part of the Daily Mail Group, is planning to take an additional 14% stake in Essex Radio. DMG, which already owns 27%, is negotiating with Radio Investments to acquire the extra portion. Any deal between DMG Radio and Radio Investments will automatically be the subject of a Radio Authority public interest test.…Wire FM… Continue reading DMG Radio Plans New Radio Stake
According to unofficial BARB data the Sky Sports 2 audience for Saturday night’s England v Italy football match peaked at 4.05 million, with an average audience of 3.6 million. This of course does not take into account the large numbers of people who watched the Sky coverage in pubs and clubs.ITV’s delayed recording of the… Continue reading BSkyB England Audience Peaks At 4m
IPC has announced a restructure in its classified sales department. Mike Rowley, group ad sales director, has created two new areas of responsibility: Kevin Attridge is being promoted to head of sales for SouthBank, Weeklies, Science and Special Interest while Cathy Neale is being promoted to head of sales for Leisure, Music and Sport. Both… Continue reading Restructured Sales Department For IPC
Chris Evans’ Virgin Radio breakfast show, which launched this morning, is being sponsored by Beamish Red. Kellogg’s, who were to be sponsors of the Russ ‘n’ Jono show which Evans replaced, pulled out of the deal after hearing that Russ ‘n’ Jono had been dropped. Over on BBC Radio 1 , Zoe Ball and Kevin… Continue reading Evans And Beamish
The local newspaper group Adscene has launched the Canterbury Times , a new weekly newspaper. 26,000 copies of the paper went on sale at 25p, competing against the existing Kentish Gazette . The Canterbury Times follows a recent trend in the comeback of local and regional newspapers. The Newspaper Society reported that more than half… Continue reading Adscene Launch Canterbury Times
Pearson was the focus of much attention last week, reaching a high of 824p on Tuesday before falling to 799p by Friday. On Tuesday the rumour-mill predicted that the media group would sell its stake in BSkyB or its share in Lazards. This, together with positive reports from NatWest Securities, helped Pearson rise 25.5 to… Continue reading Sharewatch W/E 10/10/97
Monday The battle of the breakfast shows began in earnest this morning with Chris Evans taking the helm at the Virgin morning slot and Zoe Ball and Kevin Greening beginning their contract on BBC Radio 1.Wednesday The Channel 5 teletext service launches. The service, provided by BSkyB , will provide mainly travel and holiday information.Also… Continue reading The Week Ahead
