Iliffe set to acquire Newark Advertiser

According to the Newark Advertiser hits sale to Iliffe Media has been agreed in principle and is expected to be completed by mid-June. The board took the decision because it believes that the long-term future of the company is better protected as part of a larger-scale operation.

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Trinity Mirror’s Express takeover slowed down as competition regulators lift up the bonnet

Britain’s competition regulator today launched an investigation into the sale of Richard Desmond’s Express newspaper stable to the owner of the Daily Mirror. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it “will now assess whether this deal could significantly reduce competition within the UK media sector”. A deadline of 7 June has been set for a decision with interested parties invited to submit evidence to the investigation.

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GateHouse Media Buys ‘Austin American-Statesman’

GateHouse Media has acquired the Austin American-Statesman from Cox Enterprises for $47.5 million. The deal is expected to close April 2. GateHouse Media says it is the U.S.’s largest owner of daily newspapers across the country, with 130 daily newspapers and more than 540 local market websites. The company is based in upstate New York. The Statesman, with its daily circulation of 85,000 and digital subscriptions of 16,786, will be one of GateHouse’s largest newspapers.

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News & Star publisher CN Group sold to Newsquest

One of the last big family-owned newspaper publishers in the UK, CN Group, is being sold to US-owned regional publisher Newsquest The group has been helmed by four generations of the Burgess family and boasts a newspaper history going back 200 years to the Carlisle Patriot. John Burgess, great grandfather of current CN Group chairman Robin Burgess, became the newspaper’s editor in 1868

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Daily Mail looks to sell Metro freesheet

DMGT, which is ultimately controlled by Viscount Rothermere, has appointed boutique advisory firm Cardean Bell to work on a strategic review of the free newspaper, City sources said. Metro, the freesheet that was set up in 1999 and within five years drew a readership of 1m, could change hands for between £25m and £35m

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Trinity Mirror seeking to bundle newspaper industry

Trinity Mirror, the UK’s largest local newspaper group and publisher of the Daily Mirror, is eyeing further consolidation, as the industry races to tackle the long-term decline of print publishing. “We see ourselves as a consolidator in the newspaper industry and will continue to do so subject to tight financial returns,” said chief executive Simon Fox, as the group reported like-for-like print advertising revenues fell 18 per cent in 2016. Trinity is in early stage talks with Northern & Shell, the parent company of the Express newspaper titles and OK Magazine, which could lead to it taking a stake in some of the Richard Desmond-owned assets.

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Gossip magazine group buys newspaper rival RCS Mediagroup In Italy

A gossip magazine owner and former employee of Silvio Berlusconi has become the owner of Italian national newspaper Corriere della Sera in the latest shake up of the country’s media market. Urbano Cairo, a self made entrepreneur behind Cairo Communication and publisher of top-selling national gossip weeklies DiPiu and Diva, gained 48.8 per cent of shares tendered in a €1bn battle for RCS Mediagroup, Corriere della Sera’s loss making owner.

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