Alex Salmond leads Johnston Press rebellion with chairman bid
Former Westminster MP Alex Salmond is mounting a fresh bid for freedom by spearheading a plot to disband the current board and management team at Johnston Press, pledging to repatriate its corporate headquarters from London to Scotland in the process.
Alex Salmond leads Johnston Press rebellion with chairman bid
Reports in The Telegraph suggest that the former first minister of Scotland is plotting with Norwegian investor Christen Ager-Hanssen, who holds a 20% stake in the company, to mount the takeover bid – installing Salmond as chairman in return.
This would see Salmond take the reigns not only of The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and The Edinburgh Evening News but all of the Johnston Press empire which includes national titles such as The i and innumerable regional titles such as the Yorkshire Post.
Salmond has a long affinity with the publisher having began his working life selling copies of the Edinburgh Evening News prior to pursuing a career in politics.
In a rallying call to shareholders to support his bid Salmond pledged to invest in journalism following numerous cutbacks at the hand of current chief executive Ashley Highfield as it struggles to meet the obligations which come with a £220m debt burden.
Salmond said: “Unfortunately and for the first time in its 200-year history the Scotsman has become largely irrelevant. There are questions to answer obviously and it is up to shareholders to decide who has the right answers.”
Salmond is best known for leading the failed 2014 Scottish independence referendum, to which The Scotsman was opposed, but has pledged to give editors a free reign to decide their own editorial policies.