GMG admits surprise that Trinity Mirror did not buy Channel M
Carolyn McCall, chief executive of Guardian Media Group (GMG) has admitted her surprise that Trinity Mirror did not buy loss making TV station Channel M as part of the sale of the group’s regional newspaper division to Trinity Mirror.
In an interview with The Guardian's Media Talk podcast, McCall discussed the deal, which was agreed earlier this week, and saw Trinity Mirror acquire GMG’s regional media division of 32 newspapers and associated websites across the UK, including the Manchester Evening News in a £44.8m deal.
Channel M was not a part of the deal, which is only worthï¿¡7.4m in cash with the remaining value accounting for the print contract that GMG has been released from by Trinity Mirror.
McCall said that Channel M was a "bold innovation" by the regional media division and that its video content was "extremely important" in the feeding to he MEN's website.
"It was surprising that Trinity Mirror didn't see it as a strategic fit," she said before admitting that a commercial deal for the video content continuing to feed the MEN site could be done.
Explaining why Trinity Mirror may not have acquired the station, McCall said that Channel M may not have been seen as a good fit for the business as Trinity Mirror bids for the publically funded regional news consortium.
McCall also acknowledged that job losses were likely among staff on the transferring papers, including the Manchester Evening News which has already experienced staff cuts in recent years.
She also explained that as a result of the sale, the cost base of Guardian News and Media has been lowered which will create “a significant step change” within the company.
“I’m sure everyone at the regionals knew that the cost reduction programmes weren’t over. We would have had to have made more redundancies because the business has fundamentally changed. It is smaller and revenues are shrinking,” explained McCall.
Media analyst Jim Chisholm, who has advised the Newspaper Association of America, told The Drum earlier this week that the deal was “great" for Trinity Mirror” but not such a great reflection of the way the regional print industry is viewed.