Regional papers squeeze Daily Mail profits as Northcliffe could be up for sale

Regional newspaper publishers continue to queue up to report falling profits and the latest is Daily Mail & General Trust.

The group revealed a 14 per cent fall in pre-tax profits to £125m in the year to October 2, despite a 1pc rise in revenues to £1.99b.

The finger of blame was pointed at its regional arm Northcliffe media where revenues declined 10pc and operating profits fell 37 per cent to £17m, as it absorbed the cost of a “substantial change programme”.

The group has appointed Ernst & Young to value its Northcliffe Media regional newspapers division ahead of what could be a potential sale.

The group said its national newspaper revenues for the year to end-September had remained stable on an underlying basis,a better result than some had expected.

National advertising revenues in the first seven weeks of its new fiscal year were down 2 percent, in line with the fourth quarter to end-September, as retailers in particular cut ad spending.

DMGT said sales should rise in 2012 at its business-to-business divisions, which include events and financial information, with margins remaining stable.

But the performance of the UK newspaper business, where regional newspaper revenues fell 10 percent in the year to end-September, would depend on the advertising market and cost cuts.

Shock horror-more BBC bashing from the Mail

It was unlikely that the Daily Mail was going to let the BBC announcement on cutbacks go without another pop at the corporation and its top story this morning lives up to expectation.

The paper reveals that MPs are being handed thousands of pounds of licence fee money simply to appear on the BBC

The Mail says that senior politicians including Diane Abbott, Hilary Benn, Sir Menzies Campbell and Caroline Flint have enjoyed being paid to turn up on panel shows, according to research conducted on the parliamentary register of members’ financial interests.

The Mail's freudian slip over the Knox verdict

Doing the rounds this morning in the world of the journalism twitterati is the massive gaffe by the Daily Mail which somewhat jumped the gun over the Amanda Knox verdict.

As Malcolm Coles relates on his excellent piece about it,

In their attempt to be first with the verdict on Amanda Knox, the Mail Online published it's pre-written story the moment the judge said the word guilty.

However and a lesson to all journos out there,listen to the whole thing

Unfortunately, like many people, the Mail was caught out by the judge finding her guilty of slander - before clearing her of the murder. At the sound of the word "guilty", they hit publish on a story about her appeal being rejected that includes reactions from the family and prosecutors being delighted - reactions that can't have happened as she was found NOT guilty of murder.

An excuse to party?

Yesterday's front page splash by the Mail on Sunday about trasury officials clebrating Burns night on the day that Britain officially dipped into recession is replied to by Iain Martin over at three line whip.

He points out that

So, a bunch of people held a party they paid for. This kind of thing will
continue to happen even in a recession. It may become more commonplace.

and adds that

Read any decent set of Second World War memoirs (Alanbrooke, Colville etc)
and drink and fun gatherings are a constant even when money gets tight. There
was a war on and people put a good deal of effort into cheering themselves
up.

How the Mail is not happy with David Cameron

It is not very often that I would agree with the Mail but their leading article this morning has got it just about spot on.

As I blogged yesterday,David Cameron's speech to the city was no more than a damp squid full of partisan politics.

The Mail agrees and adds

Disregarding whether, at the height of this crisis, Mr Cameron should have shattered the cross-party truce, the Tories have three problems:
First, that they, as a party, are closely associated with the very City fat cats whose greed triggered this financial meltdown.
Second, they never spoke out against a deregulated City.
And, thirdly, they have no clear policy as to what to do about the crisis

Super Gordon to save the World

Don't hold your breath but the Daily Mail are praising the Prime Minister

Have no fear, SuperGordon is here to help save the world

However as the Mail points out it is only a cartoon strip.

Is it a bird . . ? Is it a plane . . ? No - it's SuperGordon - with a little help from Captain Britain and a comic-book coalition of superpower heroes.
YIKES! The dashing Prime Minister discovers that three members of his Cabinet are really aliens in disguise.
ZAP! He devises a masterplan to thwart the evil plot.
KERPOW! He briefs a team of Secret Agent helpers to fly into action.
This is Gordon Brown as you have never seen him before - a Marvel Comic good-guy with chisel-jaw features and a steely resolve.

Dream of life under the Tories-I think not

Is this what life will be like under a Tory Government.

Mail online is reporting on its pet subject.Conservative controlled council Plymouth is to

send a questionnaire to every household asking them to give intimate personal details about their family.
Householders are also being asked to nominate one person who will take legal responsibility for anything put in their bins.The council is even asking how many children families have and whether they use disposable nappies.
The forms are to be sent to all homes in the city as part of a 'zero tolerance' policy on bins.
The council wants to increase fixed penalties from £50 to £110 for those who put bins out early, fail to recycle, overfill wheelie bins or put the wrong rubbish in the wrong containers.

Hat Tip-Daily Pundit

Stalking horses are let loose

It didnt take long.

The Tory paper are reporting on challenges to a Brown leadershipthis morning.The Mail on its front page saying

Left-winger John McDonnell has told friends he is ready to try to topple Mr Brown following Labour's disastrous showing in Thursday's local elections.

The Express meanwhile has on its front page that

DAVID Miliband was last night being urged to challenge Gordon Brown for the Labour leadership to save the party from meltdown in a general election.
The Foreign Secretary, reported to be holding a weekend “summit” with allies at his country retreat in Chevening, Kent, is seen by many as Labour’s best hope of heading off David Cameron’s resurgent Tories.

The paper claiming

The source said: “David’s going for it – he will challenge.”
Labour MP Graham Stringer said senior ministers were actively considering whether to mount a coup. He added: “These conversations are going on.”

Papers line up over the Euro result

Nothing divides the National press more than the European Union and thsi morning is no exception as Parliament votes not to have a referendum on the European treaty.

The usual suspects line up on both sides.

The Mail with a front page headline

A shaming day for democracy

The British people were finally denied a say on the EU constitution last night after a momentous day in the Commons.
MPs voted against holding a referendum on the biggest shift of power to Brussels for at least a decade.
This was despite pledges from both Labour and the Liberal Democrats that voters would have the chance to decide the issue.

Its leader describing the Day that Democracy died

The Sun says the Eu referendum is Brown bread

The “listening PM” ignored the demands of nine out of ten British voters and denied them the say he promised.
Mr Brown broke Labour’s 2005 general election pledge as he ordered his foot soldiers to reject a referendum.
However, 29 of his MPs rebelled and voted for a national poll.
Mealy-mouthed Lib Dems also broke their pledge to give the nation a say on the Lisbon Treaty.

And its editorial describes

it was cowardice that made Gordon Brown break his word over the EU Treaty referendum.
He reneged on his promise to hold one because he was scared of losing.
As a result, Mr Brown demeaned himself and damaged democracy

The Telegraph hasn't given up hope

Referendum campaigners admitted they had suffered a setback. But they refused to give up and said they were pinning their hopes on the House of Lords taking on the Commons and backing a referendum.
William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, said after the vote that he hoped peers in the Upper House would reverse the Commons vote and ensure Labour and the Lib Dems honoured their election promises to hold a referendum.

Whilst affiriming in its leading article that

In an unworthy display of political cynicism, the Government ordered its own MPs to vote against one of the manifesto pledges on which they were all elected.

The Mirror supports the Prime Minister describing how Gordon Brown wins historic victory on EU treaty

The PM told the Tories: "When will you wake up to the fact that 3.5 million jobs are dependent on our membership of the EU, that 700,000 companies are trading with Europe, that 60 per cent of our trade is with Europe?"

Its editorial telling us that

Eurosceptics last night suffered a devastating defeat from which they will never recover.
By rejecting a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon by 63 votes, the House of Commons passed a point of no return

The Independent describes

Victory for the Government in last night's vote on whether there ought to be a national referendum on the Lisbon treaty was the right result adding that

it should be quite clear to the objective observer that this treaty does not represent a shift in Britain's relationship with the European Union worthy of a referendum, no matter what the die-hard Eurosceptic lobby maintains.

Clarke attacks Brown over smoked salmon and scarmbled eggs

More trouble for Gordon Brown as the Mail carries an interview with former Home Sec Charles Clarke as we know not one of his biggest fans


In it he says

Clarke now accuses Gordon Brown of not having 'the confidence of the country', of being 'controlling', 'dithering' and presiding over a third-rate Cabinet.

The Prime Minister cannot bear anyone who challenges him."

And "

People want the security of confidence about where we are going. They are fed up with a stop-go, chop-and-change approach, taking up things and then dropping them,Voters don't know where Labour stands.

A case of sour grapes?,not according to Calrke who was sacked form Blair's cabinet following the revelations over foriegn prisoners.