Does a Mirror takeover of the Express and Star group make any sense? Not politically. Not in terms of where the papers stand and what they argue for. Both are in fast decline. Richard Desmond, who’s kept things profitable, wants to bow out. There are all manner of “efficiencies” – digital combinations, magazine spinoffs, printing deals, back-office manoeuvres – to play with here.
And, of course, Trinity Mirror is profitable, too. It made £133.2m in 2016, up from £107.5m in 2015, because it bought the Local World group (for £220m). Buying Desmond Inc for £100m plus would repeat the same gambit: happy board, happy investors, happy bonuses, unhappy staff.
Yet long-term investors, perhaps, might ask other questions – especially as they examine the roll call of dead Trinity Mirror titles in real local world.
There needs to be a spark of creativity and hope to newsroom mergers, a sense that journalism counts for something. Richard Desmond overdosed on crude cynicism. Today’s Trinity Mirror is a million miles from Cudlipp vision.
Think lifeboats tossed in tumultuous seas, two random (though ageing) souls hugging each other for temporary safety. Think this deal, only as good as next year’s bottom line.
