Mirror Takeover Would Further Consolidation In Regional Press Industry
Like the cable and television industries, the UK’s regional newspaper industry is currently undergoing a period of ownership concentration. A series of takeovers and mergers in the last few years has seen the creation of a number of very large regional publishing groups.
According to figures recently released by the Newspaper Society (NS), Trinity is currently the UK’s largest publisher of regional newspapers, with a total weekly circulation of 8.2 million copies across 117 titles. Trinity is itself currently hovering around the Mirror Group after its £1.3 billion takeover bid was cleared by the DTI last week (see DTI Approves Mirror Group Takeover Bids).
Trinity must dispose of its flagship Belfast Telegraph title in order to complete the merger with Mirror and it is understood to be currently considering offers for the paper from interested parties (see Trinity Receives Offers For Belfast Telegraph). Regional Independent Media (RIM), currently 6th in the NS table, is also likely to bid to take control of the Mirror, following the DTI’s report.
The interest in Mirror by these publishers is largely due to its ownership of another regional newspaper group, Midland Independent Newspapers (MIN). Mirror bought into MIN in July 1997 for £297 million (see Midland In The Mirror) and Mirror Group now sits at 5th place in the top ten table. A merger of Mirror and Trinity would create by far the largest regional publisher in the UK.
The UK regional press industry has also generated interest from overseas: the third-largest group, Newsquest, is currently considering a £902 million takeover offer from US group Gannett (see Newsquest Receives £904m US Takeover Offer). Gannett publishes 74 daily newspapers, including USA Today and also operates 21 television stations across the States.
Further consolidation occurred in May when Johnston Press acquired Portsmouth & Sunderland Newspapers for £266 million. This helped Johnston move up to 4th place in the NS league. United News & Media, however, decided to get out of the regional papers game in early 1998 by selling its United Provincial Newspapers and United Southern Publications to RIM and Southnews respectively.
There may be a limit, however, to the degree of consolidation that can occur in the regional press industry. The larger the resulting groups involved in mergers, the closer the scrutiny will be from the Competition Commission.
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