Roy Greenslade reports on the Sunday Times’ coverage of a new direction for Guardian Media Group. According to the Times’ print edition yesterday, GMG is planning to separate its newspapers and their website from the rest of its multimedia assets.
The report follows previous claims by the paper that Andrew Miller, new GMG chief executive, is looking at a sale or stock market listing for its Trader division.
Guardian Media Group and Apax Partners have begun discussions with banks about the future of Trader Media Group (TMG), owner of Auto Trader, the Guardian reports.
A trade sale or a flotation of TMG, which could value the owner of Auto Trader at up to £2bn, are the likeliest options. But a debt-funded dividend payment to the two shareholders is also a possibility, as is bringing in another investor to buy a minority stake of between 20 per cent and 40 per cent.
According to the report, it could be until late 2011 or early 2012 before a deal on TMG is done.
Interesting take on the Guardian’s business model from Stephen Glover in the wake of Trader Media Group (TMG) writing off £463 million of the value of its magazine – TMG is part owned by Guardian Media Group.
Maybe GMG will be able to bankroll its national papers for ever. Personally, I wouldn’t count on it, especially if more of its investments go wrong. The trouble is that there seems to be no one in the Scott Trust or Guardian Media Group or on the papers themselves able or prepared to stand up and say what is blindingly obvious to everyone else in Fleet Street – that these newspapers are continuing to live dangerously beyond their means.
Full piece on Independent.co.uk at this link…
Update: A GMG spokesman has told Journalism.co.uk: “The write down Stephen Glover refers to is an accounting adjustment with zero impact on the overall value of TMG or its main brand Auto Trader (…) The write down reflects a transfer of value from print to digital rather than a drop in the actual value of the company. The net book loss arises simply because accounting rules don’t allow you to ‘write up’ the part of the business that has grown.”
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