Newsquest Media Group Limitedis the second largestpublisherof regional and localnewspapersin the United Kingdom. It is owned by the American mass media holding companyGannett.
 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Media |
| Founded | 1995 |
| Headquarters | London,England, UK |
Key people | Henry Faure Walker (CEO) |
| Products | Newspapers |
 114 million (2021) | |
| Total assets |  61 million (2021) |
| Total equity | 189 million (2021) |
Number of employees | 5,000 |
| Parent | Gannett[1] |
| Website | newsquest |
It has 205 brands across the UK, publishing online and in print (165 newspaper brands and 40 magazine brands) and reaches 28 million visitors a month online and 6.5 million readers a week in print.
Based inLondon,Newsquest employs a total of more than 5,500 people across the UK. It also has a specialist arm that publishes both commercial and business-to-business (B2B) titles such asInsurance Times,The StradandBo xing News.
History
editNewsquest was founded in 1995 when United States private equity partnershipKKRfinanced a £210 million management buy-out of the Reed Regional Newspapers group of British papers fromReed Elsevier.
In 1996 Newsquest swapped its Yorkshire titles forJohnston Press'sBury, Greater Manchesterarea titles and £9.25 million, sold some of its titles in the English Midlands to Midland Independent Newspapers and bought the Westminster Press local newspapers group for £305 million fromPearson,owner ofPenguin Booksand theFinancial Times,resulting in Newsquest doubling in size. The next year it floated on theLondon Stock Exchange,realising a market capitalisation of £500 million.[2]In 1998, Newsquest added theSussexbasedContact-a-Car,theLondon Property Weeklytitles, two titles inNorth West England,and threeReviewGroup titles inHertfordshire.
In 1999,Gannett's newly formed UK subsidiary paid £922 million (about US $1.5 billion) for Newsquest and took on the company's debt.[3]In 2000, Gannett paid £525 million forSouthampton-based News Communications and Media's South Coast dailies and weeklies – and its Southernprint magazine printing division – to add to Newsquest's portfolio. It also picked up the regional newspapers business – outside Manchester – of theGuardian Media Group,a takeover that the Competition Commission cleared as there was "no overlap, in the companies' circulation areas".[4]
In 2001, Newsquest bought Surrey and Sussex Publishing and Horley Publishing, publishers ofGatwick LifeandHorley Lifeand the Dimbleby Newspaper Group's nine Greater London weeklies, including theRichmond & Twickenham Timesfor a reported £8 million.[5]
In 2003, Gannett UK paid £216 million for theScottish Media Group's three newspapers –Glasgow'sHerald,Sunday HeraldandEvening Times– 11 specialist consumer and business-to-business magazines and an online advertising and content business. TheCompetition Commissionagain inquired into this purchase, but later cleared it.[6]
In 2005, Newsquest'sExchange Enterprisesdivision paid £50.25 million forExchange & MartandAuto ExchangefromUnited Advertising Publicationsafter the small ads weeklies' publisher's parent, United Business Media, decided to concentrate on its 'core activities'.[7]
Newsquest also owned the formerly-namedBrentford, Chiswick and Isleworth Times,later known as theHounslow and Brentford Times,which closed in 2010.[8]
On 11 December 2006, Gannett denied having plans to sell Newsquest, contradicting a story in the previous day'sSunday Expressthat claimed the media giant was carrying out a company review with theCredit Suisseinvestment bank, and could sell Newsquest for up to £1.5 billion. Gannett had replied by saying: "There is no truth in the report. Newsquest is a valuable part of the Gannett company."[9]
On 2 July 2007, in his blog onThe Guardian's website, media analystRoy Greensladerevealed the content of a Newsquest company memo which acknowledged that its staff pension scheme was £65 million in deficit.[10]Members of the company's workforce were given the options of increasing their contributions (from 6% to 10%) to keep the same final salary scheme, paying in less for an inferior version, opting for a 'money purchase' scheme; or ditching their pension altogether.
The company's U.S. parentGannetthad on 18 June reported that revenues from its newspapers and broadcasting had fallen – but, the US press release said: 'Newsquest experienced higher national advertising revenue'.[11]It was "hardly a picture of a company suffering from poor health", commented Greenslade.
In August 2007 Newsquest started offering users of itsGreater Londontitles' websites downloadable supermarket coupons which could be redeemed for a range of goods at major supermarket chains, with plans to roll out the scheme to its other publications.[12]
In March 2012,The Guardianreported the results of an indicative ballot held by theNational Union of Journalistsamong its members at Newsquest, which found that more than 80% were prepared to strike if they were not given a pay rise within the year.[13]
In April 2014, following CEO/Chairman Paul Davidson's retirement, Henry Faure Walker was appointed CEO at Newsquest.
In November 2014, publication began ofThe National,a Scottish daily newspaper that supports Scottish independence.
On 26 May 2015, Newsquest announced that it had acquired Romanes Media Group, a local news publishing business operating in Scotland, Berkshire and Northern Ireland, for an undisclosed sum. The Romanes newspaper portfolio comprises one daily, 19 weekly paid-fors and nine weekly frees, and associated websites, and the company employs 270 staff.
On 28 April 2016, Newsquest announced that the latest comScore figures (Feb 2016) showed that users spend more time per month on Newsquest sites than any other regional press group. Newsquest has a digital audience of 28 million unique users including the Scottish jobs websites1jobs.
In March 2022, Newsquest acquired theArchant group of regional newspapersfromRCapital.[14]
July 2007 industrial disputes at Newsquest's Scottish titles
editIn July 2007, the UK'sCompetition Commissionreported that it was investigating allegations made bySNPMP for Perth and North PerthshirePete Wishartthat Newsquest had given it misleading evidence while it was considering whether the Liberal Democrat supporting company should be permitted to take over titles from SMG.[15]Wishart had written to the commission in June 2007 to express his concern about standards and job losses at the newspapers. Union members were holding a ballot over whether they should strike over five redundancies on theGlasgow Evening News,one of the papers bought from SMG.
On 20 July 2007, journalists at Newsquest's former-SMG titles –Glasgow Herald,Sunday HeraldandEvening Times– held a 24-hour strike to protest against compulsory redundancies and cuts of up to £3 million.[16]
Newsquest's Glasgow NUJ members went on strike again on 25 July 2007, hampering theSunday Herald's planned re-launch.[17]Successful union action had already led to the reinstatement on 31 July of the deputy Father (leader) of theEvening TimesChapel (office branch), Gordon Thomson,[18]while a work-to-rule had caused the cancellation of digital training planned for the following week.
"Newsquest's purchase of theHeraldgroup was backed by assurances that they would maintain standards and not cut editorial budgets, "the NUJ quotedCathy PeattieScottish Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament for Falkirk East as saying. "The Competition Commission may have decided that too much time has passed for it to be able to do anything, but that doesn't change the fact that Newsquest gave assurances via the commission to the people of Scotland, and those assurances now look worthless," she added. She was not surprised staff had walked out.
"They have a long list of causes for dissatisfaction – redundancies, staffing shortages, poor working conditions and high stress levels. This is damaging the health of the workers and the health of the paper. Rather than discuss the problems, Newsquest has derecognised the NUJ," Peattie continued.
Peattie had tabled a motion in theScottish Parliamentexpressing concerns about theHeraldnewspapers. It said Newsquest's programme of job cuts would harm the papers' content and put their staffs at risk and added: 'The Parliament notes that these developments are taking place despite increased profits and assurances given by Newsquest to the Competition Commission, and believes that this is to the detriment of the long term future of the titles and the Scottish newspaper industry.'
New parent company
editIn 2019 it was reported that New Media Investment Group Inc., the parent company ofGateHouse Media,was buyingGannett,the owners of Newsquest.[1]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^abLombardo, Cara; Trachtenberg, Jeffrey A. (5 August 2019)."GateHouse Media Parent to Buy Gannett for $1.4 Billion".Wall Street Journal.
- ^"ABOUT US".Newsquest Media Group.Archived fromthe originalon 18 March 2016.
- ^"Gannett Co Inc/DE – '10-Q' for 9/26/99 – EX-99.2".Securities & Exchange Commission.London. 11 September 1999. Archived fromthe originalon 27 November 2020.
- ^"Gannett UK/Johnston Press/Guardian Media Group/Regional Independent Media Holdings Newspaper Inquiry".Competition Commission.22 August 2000. Archived fromthe originalon 10 November 2007.
- ^Morgan, Jean (13 April 2001)."Dimbleby's pledge to journalists in wake of £8m sale".Press Gazette.Archived fromthe originalon 4 March 2008.
- ^"Gannett/SMG Merger Inquiry | Issues Statement".Competition Commission.29 January 2003. Archived fromthe originalon 13 May 2007.
- ^"United Business Media sells UK Automotive titles to Newsquest".United Business Media(Press release). 16 September 2005. Archived fromthe originalon 24 July 2008.
- ^Barnes, Helen (23 July 2010)."Hounslow and Brentford Times and Chiswick Times ceases publication".Richmond & Twickenham Times.Archived fromthe originalon 8 May 2014.
- ^Kiss, Jemima (11 December 2006)."Newsquest not for sale, says Gannett".The Guardian.Retrieved1 July2022.
- ^Greenslade, Roy (2 July 2007)."Newsquest staff 'reeling' from pensions 'bombshell'".The Guardian.Retrieved1 July2022.
- ^"Gannett Co., Inc. Releases May Statistical Report".Gannet Co.(Press release). 18 June 2007. Archived fromthe originalon 18 May 2008.
- ^"NEWSQUEST MEDIA GROUP LAUNCHES ONLINE PRINTABLE COUPON GALLERY ENABLING CUSTOMERS TO SAVE MONEY AT THE SUPERMARKET".Couponstar(Press release). 8 August 2007. Archived fromthe originalon 28 February 2008.
- ^Greenslade, Roy (22 March 2012)."Newsquest/Gannett faces NUJ strike action".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.OCLC60623878.Retrieved1 July2022.
- ^"Newsquest Media Group acquires Archant".Newsquest Media Group.Retrieved25 September2022.
- ^"Fresh probe into Herald takeover".BBC News.6 July 2007.Retrieved1 July2022.
- ^"Newspaper staff strike over cuts".BBC News.20 July 2007.Retrieved1 July2022.
- ^"Journalists launch second strike".BBC News.25 July 2007.Retrieved1 July2022.
- ^"Fight for jobs will go on, say Newsquest Glasgow staff".Press Gazette.2 August 2007.Retrieved14 September2007.