Newspapers Come Out Fighting, But Money Worries Remain

Boxers, boxing

Newspapers want to fight their way to recovery. The Society of Editors has given its annual one-day conference the tagline Fighting Back and it hopes the UK’s assembled national and regional newspaper editors will team to “focus on editors’ efforts to build new platforms for news delivery, revenue streams and working practices” in these trying economic times. SoE president Nigel Pickover says that despite the “battering” the press has taken it’s “more than ready to take on new challenges”.

It has a feeling of urgency, but will it reflect the stark realities newspapers are facing or the forever changed world in which they must now operate? And can any newspaper actually afford the up-to-£625 ticket price? Back in the real world, here are three publishers with problems that no one-day seminar will fix…

INM Having postponed a 300 million bond payment for a third time last week, the Indie publisher is having to work fast and smart to avoid the unthinkable consequences of missing the next payment deadline. And it is that bad: Denis O’Brien — the formerly militant shareholder who has since patched up his differences with majority shareholder Tony O’Reilly — tells the Irish edition of the Sunday Times that INM will have to consider the possibility of going into the Irish equivalent of chapter 11 bankruptcy (via Guardian.co.uk).

Johnston Press: The Yorkshire Post publisher is handing over five percent of its shares to lenders to see through a new debt restructuring programme. As FT.com reports, the company owes some £450 million and wants to re-set its banking covenants and to extend repay deadlines. It’s not quite a debt-for-equity swap — Johnston’s debt stays the same — it’s more of a sweetener to get better debt terms. Johnston is restructuring its Irish papers in a bid to save £30 million (Via the Irish Independent).

Trinity Mirror: Trinity’s Midlands staff have had enough of the cuts: about 150 National Union Journalists members across the West Midlands are to strike this Thursday, in protest against the closure of 12 newspapers and magazines and the axing of nearly 120 staff. That’s only part of the picture: 66 Trinity staff are on the way out in the North East — all in a bid to save another £25 million this year.

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