Independent News & Media has at last agreed a financial restructuring with its bondholders ‘after months of negotiations that will see the lenders take control of the publisher’, reports the Financial Times. INM’s banks have yet formally to agree to the restructuring plan, however. Full story at this link…
Amid all the ominous news surrounding Independent News&Media a more positive story for the company has surfaced:
A £40m print deal will make Northern Ireland one of the biggest producers of daily newspapers in Europe, after INM signed contracts with the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mirror.
INM will now be printing all Mirror titles and the Telegraph titles, as well as the Sun, News of the World, the Daily Express and Sunday Express, the Daily Star and the London Independent.
The Belfast Telegraph reports:
“The first deal sees all sections of the Daily Telegraph printed in the company’s high-tech plant at Newry for the next 15 years. The second deal brings the Daily Mirror to the Belfast Telegraph print plant for a seven-year term.
“The deals represent two of the longest print agreements signed in the region and have been made possible by an IN&M investment strategy which has seen more than £50m spent on new presses in both centres.”