I see that Gannett has issued an unequivocal statement denying the claim that it was about to sell off its British arm, Newsquest. The story had legs because it was picked up by Reuters from the Sunday Express . When I noted it yesterday, I did add a caveat about its source. If anyone wants a definition of the impact of "a flyer" then this is a good example.
Once Reuters had carried it, the story got "legs" with the Editors' Weblog, The Scotsman and several American sites running it too. That wasn't the only consequence. A further factual error in the Sunday Express story was also repeated. It said that Newsquest publishes "more than 300 daily and weekly newspapers in the UK". It doesn't. According to the Newspaper Society's reliable data, it publishes 219 titles.
Anyway, for the record, here's the Gannett statement once more: "There is no truth in the report. Newsquest is a valuable part of the Gannett company." Doubtless, the Sunday Express will be carrying a correction plus an apology for misleading the world's media. And Reuters ought to beware of touching one of that paper's stories in future.
