Bid to consolidate local newspapers

Tabloid veteran David Montgomery is leading talks to consolidate Britain’s local newspaper sector.

Trinity Mirror, owner of the Daily Mirror, said yesterday that it could take a minority stake in a new group formed by combining the assets of privately owned Yattendon’s Iliffe News & Media with Northcliffe’s 84 newspapers. Northcliffe is owned by Daily Mail.

The local newspaper market, in need of cost cuts to offset the loss of advertising revenues to the internet as well as falling circulations, is ripe for further consolidation, analysts have said.

DMGT, the publisher of the Daily Mail, confirmed on Sunday it was in talks about Northcliffe’s future in response to reports about a sale of the unit.

Mr Montgomery, a former Trinity Mirror chief executive, was leading talks on the deal, which would value Northcliffe at about £100m (€124.3m), according to sources.

He told Reuters last year that he had formed a company with unnamed partners called Local World, with the intention of investing in European titles.

Trinity Mirror was not planning to put its local newspaper assets, which include the Liverpool Echo and Manchester Evening News, into the venture, sources said.