News
Newsquest accounts 2023 show local press decline ‘not inevitable’
Local news “does not have to be in decline”, according to UK regional press giant Newsquest as its 2023 accounts show revenue flat over two years.
The post-pandemic revenue growth of 2022 was followed by only a slight decline in 2023 (not including the impact of the acquisition of Archant in March 2022) and an increase in profitability.
Newsquest publishes some 250 brands across the UK and is second only to Reach in terms of the size of its local media news business.
Excluding Archant, Newsquest reported revenue down 1.6% to £155.5m and profit before tax, interest, deductibles and amortisation (EBIDTA) of £32.4m (up 2.6%).
When the former Archant titles are included, Newsquest reported revenue of £192m and profit (EBITDA) of £41.3m.
Newsquest has achieved a turnaround in the financial performance of formerly loss-making Archant after dramatically cutting staff costs.
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Newsquest showed ‘resilience’ in face of weak UK economy
Newsquest, which is ultimately owned by US media giant Gannett, comprises three separate limited companies: Newsquest Media Group (150 news brands, 70 magazines), Newsquest Clyde and Forth Press (the publisher’s Scottish weekly newspaper business, not including the likes of the daily Glasgow Herald and Times) and Newsquest Community Media (which includes the four daily and 50 weekly local newspaper titles that formerly comprised Archant).
Writing in the main Newsquest Media Group accounts, finance director Paul Hunter said the improved profitability in 2023, against a backdrop of weak economic growth in the UK, showed “considerable resilience”.
He added: “We are particularly pleased with the ongoing stability in Newsquest’s revenues, which excluding acquisitions (so on a like for like basis) have been broadly flat for the last two years, a period where the wider news publishing industry has generally been experiencing significant revenue declines.
“This revenue stability helps support our view that local news publishing does not have to be in decline – indeed our view is that, although the industry employs many fewer people than it used to in the print dominated era, and there are still risks and challenges, the local news sector is very much alive and kicking.”
Getting to this stable position has required “a lot of innovation”, said Hunter, particularly in digital which he said now accounts for 50% of advertising revenue.
Speaking at a Press Gazette event in November, Newsquest chief executive Henry Faure Walker said much of the company’s success was down to the focus on having local sales people who offer to help local businesses with advertising on Facebook and Google as well as on Newsquest’s own print and digital brands.
He said: “We’ve tried to diversify away from being a pure publisher to being a digital marketing agency and that’s been pretty successful.”
Deep local engagement (rather than scale) is focus
Newsquest claims to reach more than 40 million digital users per month via its websites. But finance director Hunter said the company’s core focus is on reaching an audience in the areas each title services – citing the examples of York, Worcester and Wrexham where Newsquest websites reach three-quarters of the local population every month online.
Hunter also said that the best way for the government to help the local news industry is by spending money with it. He said local newsbrands reach 77% of the UK population and only account for 2.2% of government ad spend.
Archant goes from loss to huge profit (but with far fewer staff)
The accounts reveal the extent of the challenge at Archant, previously the UK’s fourth largest regional newspaper group, which was bought by Newsquest in March 2022.
The Eastern Daily Press publisher struggled during the Covid-19 pandemic and was bought by private equity firm Rcapital Partners in August 2020 in a Company Voluntary Arrangement deal which left shareholders with nothing.
Archant went from turnover of £43m in 2022 to £36.4m in its first full year of Newsquest ownership. But it went from a pre-tax loss of £8m to a pre-tax profit of £5.6m. Archant’s EBITDA profit figure increased nine-fold to nearly £9m.
This was mainly achieved by slashing wages and salary costs from £21.7m to £11m. The average number of employees fell from 670 to 290.
Part of the reduction in staff and turnover is due to the fact the 2022 accounts include a number of specialist magazine titles which were sold off early in the year. Press Gazette understands that a number of loss-making sections of the former Archant business were also closed by Newsquest in the year.
The accounts for the Archant business state that its decline in revenue was “reflective of the disruption required to refocus” the business, its technology and its working practices.
“These changes have transformed the profitability and viability of the company going forward,” they stated.
NUJ says staff should be rewarded, not just top directors
Total remuneration for the best-paid director at Newsquest Media Group increased to £976,695 in 2023 versus £640,390 in 2022. This pay will have included a performance-related element.
Following publication of the Newsquest accounts, NUJ national coordinator Chris Morley said: “For the two UK executive directors to between them enjoy not only a bankable 14.5% total increase in their salaries – an injection last year of £89,000 to their base pay – but a whopping 74% boost in ‘performance related payments’ to almost £700,000.
“If their performance was that good, we believe that journalists, who are key to generating the group revenue, should be far better rewarded. Instead this year, where offers have been made to our members, they have often been months after the annual pay anniversary and typically only around 3%. In the case of Local Democracy Reporters, Newsquest only passed on the 1.5% uplift in funding from the BBC, although it did at least establish a better minimum salary which additionally benefitted a few…
“The business’s finances are even more positive following the payment in January of a £5m scheduled final deficit payment into the old final salary pension scheme. The accounts make clear that a further payment in 2025 will not be necessary as the old scheme is now fully funded. This gives the company much more financial flexibility which we say should lead to long overdue investments in the staff.”
The Newsquest NUJ Group Chapel said in a statement: “We know from comparisons with colleagues in other news publishers that Newsquest pay is not competitive, and we are calling on senior management to reverse this trend and instead make the company a magnet for top journalistic talent.”
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our “Letters Page” blog
BBC/Passion Pictures/Pierre Auroux/@Pierresnaps“I was always drawn to Elizabeth Taylor,” says Kim Kardashian.
The media personality was the last person to have a published interview with Taylor before she died in 2011. The interview – for Harper’s Bazaar magazine – featured a photoshoot inspired by the star’s famous role in the 1963 movie Cleopatra.
“We were actually supposed to meet up for tea at her house, and then she fell ill,” Kardashian says.
Instead, the pair arranged to speak over the phone. What struck her, she remembers, was Taylor’s approach to life.
“We were talking about fighting for people,” Kardashian says. “She understood her power and her beauty.”
Taylor’s life – from her Oscar wins to her seven husbands – is explored in new BBC documentary series Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar.
Bettmann/Getty ImagesKardashian – who has more than 360 million followers on Instagram after first rising to fame on reality TV series Keeping Up With the Kardashians – serves as an executive producer on the series and explains how the movie star inspired her.
“There’s so many young people I want to remind or even teach them about who she is,” she says.
Kardashian wants to “ensure” Taylor’s legacy continues.
‘She just did not care’
Taylor, born in 1932, was in the public eye for most of her life. She moved from England to Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, when she was seven – and had her first hit film with National Velvet at the age of 12.
She went on to be the first actress to sign a million dollar contract for a single film, for Cleopatra, and her romantic relationship with co-star Richard Burton sparked a paparazzi frenzy.
“She was very honest about her love life and she would obviously fall in and out of love,” Kardashian says, adding “she loved love”.
Taylor’s eight marriages – she married Welsh actor Burton twice – were heavily publicised.
And in the 1980s, the star would go on to use her spotlight to campaign for Aids patients.
“What really moved me [is] how she would fight for people that were voiceless, and how she was so passionate about it,” Kardashian says.
In 1985, Taylor helped found the American Foundation for Aids Research (amfAR), a month before her close friend Rock Hudson died from an Aids-related illness.
She was instrumental in getting US president Ronald Reagan to speak at a dinner for the organisation after years of mostly avoiding the topic – and she sold the exclusive photos from her eighth wedding to start the Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation in 1991.
Bettmann/Getty ImagesKardashian says Taylor’s involvement in Aids activism, at a time when few celebrities spoke up, is “completely inspiring”.
“The main thing is that she just did not care,” Kardashian says, “the scrutiny was worth the help that she was able to accomplish.”
She adds that Taylor is someone she would “look to” when approaching her prison reform advocacy. In 2018, she met with Donald Trump to discuss the topic and lobbied the White House for the release of Alice Johnson, a great-grandmother jailed for two decades. And in April, she met Kamala Harris to discuss pardons issued by President Joe Biden.
“I know that when I do prison reform work and people think it’s too, maybe, crazy of a topic to really get involved in, you just think of her.”
‘I will cherish that forever’
Kardashian had other connections to the Hollywood star, too.
“I would always hear a lot about Elizabeth Taylor,” Kardashian says, explaining she once dated a nephew of Michael Jackson and recalls seeing “beautiful paintings” of Taylor in the singer’s home (Jackson and Taylor were close friends).
Kardashian also remembers Taylor gifting her a bottle of her signature White Diamonds perfume. “I will cherish that forever,” she says, adding her famous jewellery collection inspired her too.
BBC/Passion Docs Ltd./Pierre Auroux/@PIERRESNAPSSome of the items in her collection were named after her relationships, like the Mike Todd tiara and the Taylor-Burton diamond.
“I just thought that was so fun and inspiring,” Kardashian says. “There was a time when I stopped wearing jewellery for a while and then I think of her, she was so unapologetically herself, and I just love that.”
She says she is excited for people to see the documentary series.
“My sisters want to watch it, my mom and my grandma. So that makes me really proud. When every generation wants to see it.
“I just really want people to understand that she was everything: she could be the glamorous actress, she could be having a hard time and going through health issues and then she can also be the strongest activist.”
You can watch Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar on BBC iPlayer.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta unveils new smart glasses
News
Mystery of human remains found on board doomed HMS Terror solved as DNA proves crew member was CANNIBALISED
MYSTERY surrounding human remains from the disastrous Franklin expedition in 1845 has been solved, with researchers revealing an unlucky lad was cannibalised.
Scientists also identified the sailor, who was eaten after the botched voyage that was dubbed the “lost expedition”.
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The failed journey of arctic exploration was led by Sir John Franklin, who brought 129 crewmen along with him.
Researchers have used DNA analysis to find that some of the remains on King William Island in Canada belong to a lad named Sir James Fitzjames, who had the title of British first officer.
The study’s co-author Dr Douglas Stenton, who hails from Waterloo University, said rank and status counted for nothing once survival instincts kicked in.
A British Royal Navy expedition, the sailors took to the seas to find a sea route between the Pacific and the Atlantic – via the Arctic.
They hoped lucrative shipping routes could be established if a safe route over Canada’s north was discovered.
But two ships – one aptly named HMS Terror and the other HMS Erebus – got trapped in the ice close to King William Island.
Franklin ordered his crew to abandon the ships and instead try to traverse the island by foot.
They were no match for the freezing temperatures, as well as scurvy they’d developed.
Not a single one survived, and the discovery of the crew’s bones years later sent shivers down scientists’ spines.
A team from University of Waterloo and Lakehead University in 2013 excavated the site, containing a chilling 415 bones believed to belong to at least 13 crew.
One of those bones was a jawbone, since found to belong to Fitzjames.
But what had scientists speculating over cannibalism was the state they found it in – it featured a series of small cut marks.
Researchers believed this indicated the bones was butchered for meat, and that Captain Fitzjames had been eaten by a cannibal.
The horror hypothesis was later proven when scientists discovered many of the same bones to have similar cut marks.
At least four of the bodies at the site had been eaten, scientists say.
Robert Park, another co-author from University of Waterloo, said: “It demonstrates the level of desperation that the Franklin sailors must have felt to do something they would have considered abhorrent.
“Ever since the expedition disappeared into the Arctic 179 years ago there has been widespread interest in its ultimate fate, generating many speculative books and articles and, most recently, a popular television miniseries which turned it into a horror story with cannibalism as one of its themes.
“Meticulous archaeological research like this shows that the true story is just as interesting and that there is still more to learn.”
Scientists are now calling for any descendants of sailors from the doomed expedition to see if they DNA can matched to any of the others left rotting on the island.
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FT Crossword: Number 17,853
A POPULAR TV presenter has revealed the key hotel habits she swears by to avoid getting sick on her travels.
Catriona Rowntree, 53, is a seasoned traveller having presented Australia’s Getaway for 27 years but has now revealed her top hotel hacks she swears by.
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One of her key tips is how to avoid getting sick when staying overseas – and that’s to turn off the air-con “immediately” in order to avoid catching a cold.
She also told Escape that you should never drink the water.
Catriona also recommended the best time to travel was in the shoulder season – the period between high season and off-season.
For anyone wanting a more authentic experience while abroad the TV personality recommended using a local travel concierge.
If you don’t want to get hit in the wallet, always avoid the mini bar as they’re always overpriced.
Catriona also recommended taking a little sample of your favourite coffee or tea with you.
She also said to always be nice to whoever is checking you in as “a genuine smile and kindness is always rewarded”.
A quirky tip she also revealed was to take an egg cup from home if you like a boiled egg because “no one ever seems to supply them”.
Another useful tip was to photograph where you parked the car at the airport as “I guarantee you’ll return pooped and forget where you left it”.
Catriona also had advice for those going on a cruise.
She recommended booking a salon treatment the moment you get on board so you can get all the “location goss” from the beautician.
The Getaway star also said to never take candles or hair straighteners/tongs on a cruise ship.
Catriona also revealed the three essential items she always took with her on her holidays.
Firstly, she always packed a pair of earplugs as she said she was always wakened by bumps in in the night.
Another thing she always had with her was a wool scarf, which she said could serve a number of purposes, from keeping her warm on flights, to covering her hair and shoulders if she went to visit a religious site and also to use as a cover for her pillow if she was staying at a “dodgy hotel”.
The third item was a shower cap as she said not every hotel had them.
Not only does it keep your hair dry but she used them to cover her shoes if they go dirty.
Not only that but they were also ideal for wrapping her “wet cozzie in” having gone for that last holiday swim.
Catriona also shared her top tips for flying long haul.
She said that she always dresses in layers and never wore a belt in order to stay comfortable.
The experienced travellers also said she used packet wipes to remove any makeup, so she could do it sat in her sea.
She also advised to try to watch a film made in the country she was going to.
A quirky thing she revealed was that she never touched alcohol whilst watching a sad movie on a plane.
Catriona said: “The low air pressure and high altitude make me cry like a baby.
“Consider yourself lucky you weren’t sitting next to me when I watched Bridges over Madison County, when drinking a red vino. SO embarrassing.”
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Claimed Orders to Target Trains
According to the FSB, the suspects were recruited by Ukrainian intelligence and were promised payments ranging from 10,000 to 15,000 rubles ($100 to $150).
The specific targets of the fires were not disclosed, but state media aired footage of the suspects being detained.
The video showed FSB agents apprehending the individuals, some of whom had visible injuries. One of the detained suspects claimed they were contacted via the Telegram messaging app to carry out arson attacks.
Though the arrested individuals are accused of setting fire to cell phone towers, one suspect reported that they had been given instructions to create explosives for larger attacks, including targeting trains.
The arrests occurred in various regions of Russia, including Irkutsk, Nizhny Novgorod, and Samara, all far from the Ukrainian border.
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