Shares slump at Thomson Reuters and Reed Elsevier

Posted by Paul McNally on 8 October 2008 at 11:33
Tags: Media Business

It’s been another disappointing morning for some of the UK’s biggest publicly listed media companies.

Shares in Reed Elsevier have fallen 8 per cent to 497p this morning following reports that the sale of B2B arm Reed Business Information has hit the rocks now that financing is hard to come by.

Thomson Reuters fell 8.7 per cent to 1015p by 11am this morning. The financial news provider has seen its share price suffer amid concerns that redundancies in the City will mean fewer clients for its trading terminals and data services.

ITV fell 10 per cent yesterday after investment bank UBS cut its target price in the face of a weakening economy and bleak advertising market. By 11.20am this morning, ITV shares had begun to recover, up 5 per cent to 36.75p.

Johnston Press dropped 20 per cent yesterday to 39p after Citibank said the regional newspaper publisher posed a potential refinancing risk. Shares this morning were up 0.25p.

Sir Philip Green: Journalists must stop scaring shoppers

Posted by Paul McNally on 8 October 2008 at 08:52
Tags: Media Business

Billionaire retail magnate Sir Philip Green has accused the press of talking down the economy and spreading gloom among consumers.

In a press conference yesterday to coincide with the BHS results, Green said: “The press have got to stop. People are going to go shopping, the whole world isn’t going to stop.”

Trinity Mirror regionals join forces for market crash liveblog

Posted by Patrick Smith on 7 October 2008 at 13:09
Tags: Media Business, Regional Newspapers

It affects all of their readers, so why not work together? Today Trinity Mirror titles The Journal, Newcastle, the Birmingham Post and the Liverpool Daily Post joined forces to write a liveblog covering the drastic falls in the FTSE 100 share index.

Readers of all three papers were told the project was an attempt to provide “breaking news surrounding the banking crisis, as well informed opinion” from the papers’ experts around the country.

The journalists are using coveritlive, which the LDP and Liverpool Echo have used extensively to cover big events in the city and the Birmingham Post used to cover the recent Conservative Party conference.

One of the benefits of using liveblogs is the ability to post different thing such as pictures, audio or link to things like this handy timeline of the crisis, made using Dipity.

The project has echos of FT.com’s Markets Live, part of the Alphaville bog, which is quietly building a cult following among business-minded folk.

Tina Brown on her new web venture: The Daily Beast is your omnivorous friend

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 7 October 2008 at 08:05
Tags: Journalism, Magazines, Media Business, New Media, Online

Mag supremo Tina Brown today opened her new website - The Daily Beast - which was yesterday password protected.

And at first glance it appears to be an impressive comeback from the British-born US magazine queen - with some serious technological and editorial muscle behind it. (more…)

Three jobs go at Shoreham as Johnston Press cuts continue

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 7 October 2008 at 07:13
Tags: Journalism, Media Business, Newspapers, Regional Newspapers

The Shoreham Herald in East Sussex is the latest local paper to be hit by the job cuts currently raging across the industry.

Holdthefrontpage reports that the edition editor, sport editor and entertainment editor have all lost their jobs in recent weeks - three seemingly vital roles. This follows major job cuts across parent company Johnston Press - and across the other big regional players: Newsquest and Trinity Mirror.

Yesterday Press Gazette reported that six jobs were being cut by Newsquest at its London weeklies as it axed the roles of sub editor.

Richard Desmond praised for his ‘ruthless devotion to profit’

Posted by Patrick Smith on 30 September 2008 at 09:21
Tags: Media Business, National Newspapers

It’s not something you read everyday: a media trade magazine praising the business tactics of Express Newspapers owner Richard Desmond, publisher of the Express and Star titles and OK!.

But that’s exactly what Media Week editor Steve Barrett has done this week by giving the controversial Desmond a rare positive appraisal in an editorial.

The Express was pleased enough to merit the article itself worthy of a news story.

Desmond has been described as “the worst newspaper publisher in 60 years” and is an arch-enemy of the National Union of Journalists for his staff-cutting, the latest installment of which involves axing 86 production staff on the Express titles.

But, as Barrett says:

“There are others who, on the quiet, profess grudging admiration for the way Desmond and his long-standing associate Stan Myerson make solid pre-tax profits out of print in these challenging times - £52m in 2007.

“Desmond and Northern and Shell will never be eveyone’s cup of tea. but the ruthless devotion to profit and scaling a business up or down according to circumstances is hard to argue with.”

And Desmond isn’t afraid to invest in new ventures. He spent $100m on OK! in US, and Barrett points out that despite scepticism over the move the magazine is set to start recouping that investment.

But one aspect of Barrett’s analysis will prove interesting reading to Trinity Mirror investors and employees: “Desmond has always had a liking for the Mirror and some think he may one day mount a bid for the struggling paper. The regulators would have something to say about it, but that would really put the cat among the pigeons - and who’s to say that Desmond and crew wouldn’t confound the critics and pull it off once again.”

Online newspapers: the figures just don’t add up

Posted by Patrick Smith on 30 September 2008 at 08:48
Tags: Media Business, Media Metrics, National Newspapers, New Media, Newspapers, Online

Newspapers making the shift from once-a-day print publisher to 24-hour digital hub should take note: according to one editor, online operations are underestimating the costs and overestimating the revenues of the move to online.

(more…)

Business as usual for Archant under new chief executive Adrian Jeakings

Posted by Patrick Smith on 29 September 2008 at 09:24
Tags: Media Business, Regional Newspapers

The incoming Archant chief executive Adrian Jeakings has promised there won’t be any major diversion in the company’s strategy following John Fry’s departure to replace longstanding Johnston Press chief executive Tim Bowdler.

In an interview with the Eastern Daily Press - a flagship Archant title - Jeakings, formerly Archant’s group finance director, is confident that he inherits a business capable of getting through the lean months ahead, He says:

John leaves behind a very strong management team, a business that is in the process of bringing its growing digital activities into its mainstream, a magazine division that is unique in the industry and that huge potential.

Privately-owned Archant is performing “slightly better, and in some areas much better” than its regional rivals, he says, and has lower debt. So to “suddenly change things around would be illogical”.

So no wholesale changes just yet. But Archant is, like Johnston, Trinity Mirror, Northcliffe Media and Newsquest, heavily exposed to the classified print display advertising market, which is suffering a severe downturn. Northcliffe owner DMGT said last week that its revenue from property ads in July and August were 45 per cent down on the same period last year.

Archant’s own profits for the first half of this year dipped to £13.1.m - down from £14.5m in 2007 - and Jeakings sees no immediate signs of this improving, predicting that the company’s fortunes would not see “material improvement this side of the end of 2009″.

TheBusinessDesk.com poaches Manchester Evening News business editor to continue north west expansion

Posted by Patrick Smith on 25 September 2008 at 13:04
Tags: Media Business, Regional Newspapers

Regional financial news site TheBusinessDesk.com continues its rise and rise with the appointment of Manchester Evening News business editor Chris Barry.

It’s quite a coup for the site, started by former Yorkshire Post business editor David Parkin in November 2007, after spending seven years in the YP’s cavernous Leeds newsroom. 

Although it started as a Yorkshire-only site, Parkin is now setting his sights across the Pennines with a north west edition, which launched earlier this month and is produced from the site’s new Manchester office. Parkin tells How Do:

“I said when we launched that this region [north west] deserves quality journalism and real investment, and I think this shows that we’re prepared to follow through on our promises.”

Competition for business news in Manchester is now pretty stiff. Not only are the MEN, agencies, the FT and now TheBusinessDesk clamouring for details on the next big deal, but so is Crain’s Manchester Business, launched by US publisher Crain early this year.

Reed Business Information bidding goes through to third round

Posted by Rachael Gallagher on 23 September 2008 at 10:05
Tags: B2B Magazines, Magazines, Media Business

The bidding for the b2b arm of Reed Elsevier, Reed Business Information, has moved into its third round with four of the original eight bidders expected to go through, reports The Financial Times.

The length of the third round depends on whether bidders can raise finance in the current economic climate, which last week saw the private equity consortium consisting of Providence Equity Partners, Carlyle Group and Blackstone Group withdraw its offer of B2B publisher Informa.

Online advertising suffers credit crunch effect

Posted by Patrick Smith on 22 September 2008 at 10:54
Tags: Media Business, National Newspapers, Regional Newspapers

Digital advertising revenues are taking a hit amid the current market turmoil, ending five years of non-stop growth.

As the FT reports, media analyst group Enders has cut back the forecast for the UK online ad market from a 28 per cent increase on 2007 to 18.5 per cent.

Hardly a year-end report or trading update from news media companies goes by without boasting impressive increases in digital advertising revenue.

For example Johnston Press’s profits were down 15.9 per cent year on year to £81.6m in August’s year-end results - but digital revenues were up 52 per cent.

How long will the growth continue for newspaper websites?

Speculators cashed in minutes before BBC HBoS scoop

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 22 September 2008 at 09:06
Tags: Broadcast, Journalism, Media Business, National Newspapers

Speculators made £190 million the two minutes before 9am on Wednesdsay when BBC business editor Robert Peston broke news of takeover talks between Lloyds TSB and HBoS, according to the Mail on Sunday.

Peston told the MoS that information on the takeover was “tightly held”. He said: “If there were big buys before I broadcast, that is quite scary.”

The shares more than doubled in value in the hour following Peston’s scoop.

New private equity bidder in frame for RBI

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 5 September 2008 at 09:14
Tags: B2B Magazines, Magazines, Media Business

Former Reed Elsevier non-executive director Strauss Zelnick is said to have teamed up with private equity group Apollo to make a bid for Reed Business Information - which is currently up for sale, the FT reports. The various bidders have until 18 September to finalise their offers for the group -which could be sold as a whole, or broken up.

 

 

Private equity groups close to making Informa bid

Posted by Patrick Smith on 2 September 2008 at 10:30
Tags: Magazines, Media Business

Today’s Times reports that a consortium of private equity groups including Providence Equity Partners and Carlyle Group are close to making a £3bn bid for magazine publisher Informa.

Informa, which publishes law, insurance and media B2Bs, saw its shares rise 14.75p yesterday to 440.5p on the back of the news.

Times price rise creates level playing field for quality nationals

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 29 August 2008 at 13:29
Tags: Media Business, National Newspapers, Newspapers

The Times is rising its price by 10p to 80p from Monday making it cost the same as The Independent, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian reports.

Sport Media Group posts healthy pre-tax profits

Posted by Patrick Smith on 29 August 2008 at 11:13
Tags: Media Business, National Newspapers

Sport Media Group, owners of the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport, yesterday posted a pre-tax profit of more than £6m, before exceptional items.

In a short trading update on the company’s investor site, Sport Media Group said it was pleased with the figures,  for the six months to July, and that the board is optimistic for the year ahead.

It is now one month on from the rather unexpected news, broken on PressGazette.co.uk, of former Cambridge Evening Post editor Murray Morse joining the papers as editor-in-chief. The company said it has already seen some “encouraging responses to the changes he has made”.

The company’s annual report is out in November,

Trinity Mirror shares boosted by Goldman rating

Posted by Patrick Smith on 27 August 2008 at 15:06
Tags: Media Business, National Newspapers

It’s not all bad news for Trinity Mirror in the City these days. This morning Goldman Sachs upped its rating on the beleaguered publisher from “sell” to “buy”, as Times Online reports.

Goldman’s broker was enthusiastic that Trinity’s national titles, The Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and the People, “might prove attractive to potential bidders at the current low valuation”. 

Goldman’s target price rose from 85p to 139p for Trinity shares - while the actual share price shot up 5.25p to 104.75p as a result.

The picture was less rosy for Johnston Press, which saw its share price drop 3p to 48p today.

Save our Star petition seeks to curb Johnston cutbacks

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 27 August 2008 at 09:51
Tags: Journalism, Media Business, Regional Newspapers

NUJ members at Johnston Press-owned Sheffield Newspapers are seeking support for their Save Our Star petition.

They are concerned about plans for five compulsory redundancies at the Sheffield Star and related titles and the closure of the Barnsley and Rotherham offices. The NUJ is currently looking into taking concerted action at Johnston Press in response to cutbacks across the group.

 

Johnston Press to announce impairment charge on 2005 newspapers purchase

Posted by Patrick Smith on 26 August 2008 at 11:33
Tags: Media Business, Regional Newspapers

Regional newspaper publisher Johnston Press is expected to announced an impairment charge of more than £100m tomorrow, reports Times Online.

Johnston will write off some 20 per cent of the £475 million worth of newspapers it bought in 2005 - including The Scotsman, the Edinburgh Evening News and the Belfast Newsletter. This means it is effectively admitting to the stock market that they have gone down in value.

The Times tips Alan Revell, former chief operating office of Associated Northcliffe Digital, to succeed outgoing Johnston chief executive Tim Bowdler, who steps down later this year.

In May Johnston launched a £212m rights issue and brought in Malaysian billionaire Ananda Krishnan as a board member, owner of media conglomerate Usaha Tegas.

A write-down was mooted as early as March this year when analysts warned that Johnston could be in danger of breaking its banking covenants.

Emap boss Gilberston attracts flak over email holiday boast

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 26 August 2008 at 10:25
Tags: B2B Magazines, Consumer Magazines, Journalism, Magazines, Media Business

Emap boss David Gilbertson has come under fire after sending off an email to staff revealing that his holiday home in the Dordogne could sleep “about 50″.

Staff have complained that the email was insensitive, the Mail on Sunday reports, coming at a time when Emap publications have been asked to cut spending by between £100,000 and £200,000 - or find other ways of making money.