Sharewatch: Indy Steady As Tabloid Research Begins

A healthy day’s trading amongst media stocks yesterday saw few companies lose value on their share price. Independent maintained a steady performance, sticking at 158žp as the company unveiled plans for new research into compact newspapers in collaboration with The Times.

The new initiative is designed to boost the advertising revenues of both newspapers’ compact editions by demonstrating the advantages of the medium to advertisers. The two titles are currently canvassing the UK’s major media agencies in order to hone the research brief and will release details of the final brief later this year. Results of the study are expected to be released early next year (see Times And Independent Join For Tabloid Research Project).

Elsewhere, ITV saw continued growth, rising by 1.64% as the launch date of its latest digital channel, ITV3, approaches. The broadcaster recently secured FMCG giant Unilever as the exclusive advertiser for the channel’s first commercial break. The solus position will enable Unilever to run campaigns for its top rating brands, including Persil, Comfort, Lynx, Dove and Birds Eye when the channel launches on 1 November (see ITV Secures First Advertiser For New Digital Channel).

Magazine publisher Future Network also added to its share price, rising by 1.31% to close at 58p. The company recently announced the publication of Total Guitar magazine’s 10th birthday issue, featuring a one-off promotional DVD and marking the entrance of Stephen Lawson as the title’s new editor (see Future Marks Total Guitar Anniversary With DVD Special).

The FTSE 100 struggled to make a significant rise yesterday, adding 12.7 points to close at 4,642.8. The FTSE 250 also had difficulty, climbing by just 4 points before closing at 6,326.5.

The closing prices of media company shares on Thursday were: