This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/11/independent-owner-considering-closing-national-print-titles
The article has changed 10 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Independent owner considering closing national print titles | Independent owner considering closing national print titles |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| The owner of the Independent and Independent on Sunday is considering closing the national print titles and moving to a web-only operation. | The owner of the Independent and Independent on Sunday is considering closing the national print titles and moving to a web-only operation. |
| Evgeny Lebedev and his top lieutenants have not yet made a final decision, however it is widely expected that they will cease printing the 30-year old newspaper, leading to significant job losses. | Evgeny Lebedev and his top lieutenants have not yet made a final decision, however it is widely expected that they will cease printing the 30-year old newspaper, leading to significant job losses. |
| The move has been prompted by Lebedev’s decision to sell the i, the cut-price national title which props up the Independent, to Johnston Press in a £25m cash deal. | The move has been prompted by Lebedev’s decision to sell the i, the cut-price national title which props up the Independent, to Johnston Press in a £25m cash deal. |
| Assuming the sale goes through, Lebedev is expected to seek to invest the proceeds into further developing the independent.co.uk website into an international digital newsbrand – while ending the newspapers. | Assuming the sale goes through, Lebedev is expected to seek to invest the proceeds into further developing the independent.co.uk website into an international digital newsbrand – while ending the newspapers. |
| Lebedev is expected to retain ownership of the Evening Standard, which is 25% owned by Daily Mail publisher DMGT, and the TV station London Live. | Lebedev is expected to retain ownership of the Evening Standard, which is 25% owned by Daily Mail publisher DMGT, and the TV station London Live. |
| Johnston Press, which will need to gain shareholder approval for the deal, is expected to retain about half the i staff. | |
| The company will also licence content from the Independent and the Evening Standard. | |
| Sales figures show how difficult it has become for the Independent and Independent on Sunday. The Independent’s official paid circulation is just 40,718, boosted by 15,356 free or discounted bulk copies. | |
| The Independent on Sunday sells on average 42,888 copies, with its circulation more than doubled with another 49,861 bulks. | |
| It is understood that a combination of the i, Independent and Independent on Sunday is understood to be at almost break even. | |
| Heavy cost-cutting has seen staff on the flagship national titles cut back to just 150 full-time employees, boosted by a casual workforce. | |
| The last publicly available figures, for the year to September 2014, show a trading loss of £4.6m. | |
| When the Lebedevs acquired the Independent and Independent on Sunday in 2010 losses were running at £22.6m. | |
| It is understood that Lebedev has been seeking a buyer for the Independent titles, as he did in 2014, but talks with a potential Qatari suitor fell through. | |
| The Lebedevs have pumped more than £111m into their UK media assets up until the end of September 2014, £65m of that is thought to have been on the Independent titles. | |
| The launch of the i in 2010 was a clever strategic move that provided something of a lifeline for the Independent titles. | |
| The cut price national, which has doubled in price to 40p since launch, was described by a former chief executive as a vital “rubber ring” to make the Indy titles sustainable long term. | |
| Lebedev is aiming to invest the £25m proceeds from the sale of the i into beefing up the Independent website. | |
| Interestingly, the website is held in a separate company to the Indy print titles, which means it is ring-fenced from the impact of any decision to close the titles. | |
| Arguably the newspapers’ most valuable asset, it has 2.8 million daily unique browsers and 58 million monthly uniques, making it a relative minnow in comparison to some of its rivals. | |
| The company that controls the website has just two directors, Evgeny Lebedev and Justin Byam Shaw. | |
| Lebedev is understood to remain committed to the Evening Standard, which makes about £2m in profits. | |
| He is also continuing to back London Live, the local TV channel for the capital, which reported a loss of £6m in the year to the end of September. | |
| The channel, which has gone through a major restructuring and content strategy shift, is now targeting break even in 2017. |