National World, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is run by former Mirror newspaper group boss David Montgomery, said it was in the early stages of a potential bid for Reach. Montgomery has long wanted a takeover of Reach, to which he sold the former Local World newspaper business in 2015 for £220m. Reach has seen its market value fall by two-thirds to £330m in the past year. “National World confirms that it is in the early stages of exploring a potential offer for the entire issued and outstanding share capital of Reach,” said National World, which has a market value of just £50m. still approach Reach’s board of directors about the potential offer.” When Reach, formerly known as Trinity Mirror, acquired assets of Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell newspaper and magazine for £200m in 2018, Montgomery broke off talks about a possible joint takeover. Montgomery founded the National World which went public a year later as a vehicle for consolidation in the troubled UK regional newspaper sector. In 2020, it signed a deal to buy JPI Media, the owner of dozens of major local newspapers, including the Edinburgh Evening News, the Lancashire Post, the Sheffield Star and the Sunderland Echo, for just £10 million. Earlier this year, National World failed in an attempt to buy Archant, the regional magazine and newspaper publisher that owns titles such as the Eastern Daily Press and London’s Ham & High Express. Archant was acquired by Newsquest, the UK’s second largest regional publisher. The potential takeover comes as newspaper publishers struggle with a slump in digital advertising, rising print costs and calls from staff for improved conditions as the cost-of-living crisis grows. Subscribe to Business Today Get ready for the business day – we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. More than 1,000 journalists at Reach went on strike for a day on August 31 over pay. More strike days, as well as a “work to rule” order, were avoided when unions accepted a revised pay offer. On Wednesday, the Independent put more than a fifth of its staff at risk of redundancy as a slump in the digital advertising market and a wider deterioration in economic conditions forced the online-only publisher to seek to cut costs. A Reach spokesman said: “The Reach board notes National World’s announcement that it is considering a potential offer for all of the company’s issued and outstanding share capital. Reach’s board confirms it has not received an approach from National World.
