Two Indo title sales get go ahead

The British government has approved the sale of two of Independent News & Media's UK regional titles to Newsquest.

Britain's Department of Trade & Industry had delayed a decision on the two titles - the Hornsey Journal and North London Weekly Herald - pending discussions with interested parties on the viability of the papers if their sale were refused on competition grounds.

Competition minister Gerry Sutcliffe said he had concluded that the papers were likely to close if their sale were blocked.

Independent is selling the titles as part of a plan to reduce its €1bn debt and announced earlier in the year a plan to sell 23 titles to Newsquest, the sale of eight of these were blocked last month.

Newsquest, a Gannett subsidiary, is the UK's second largest publisher of regional and local newspapers with a portfolio of 300 newspapers.