According to this morning’s
The Times, Sir Anthony O’Reilly, executive chairman of publishing group Independent News & Media said, he would be prepared to offload about 30% of the flagship newspaper, in an attempt to reap the benefits of increased circulation figures, which have shot up 21% since the publication downscaled its size to broadsheet compact.
However, a spokesperson for the group was clearly not in favour of the idea, which has been promoted by Ivan Fallon, chief executive of Independent News & Media. He said: “Why would we want to sell a minority stake? The paper has just gone through an extremely successful period.”
The Times said that the major players in the newspaper arena; Executives of Associated Newspaper, the national newspaper arm of Viscount Brother’s Daily Mail and General Trust and of Trinity Mirror, who are familiar with the outline proposal were privately dismissive of the idea.
Last month, The Independent’s, transition to compact broadsheet helped boost its parents group revenue up over 42% to â‚Ź68.1 million during the first six months of this year, however the newspaper is not expected to break even until 2006 – six months later than previously envisaged (see Record Results Push Independents Profits Up 42%).
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