UK based local news and magazines group Archant, based mainly in the UK’s eastern counties, is being offered for sale only 18 months after being bought out of administration (freed of what had been a crushing pension debt) by private equity firm RCapital. Archant publishes dozens of local news papers including Ham & High Express, Ipswich Star and the Eastern Daily Press along with 75 specialist and local magazines.
The company had 2020 revenue of £55.8m (2019: £78.7m) and an EBITDA loss of £1.3m (£4m profit). There is some expectation that the company will be sold for as little as £5m. Reach Plc, the UK’s largest newspaper publisher has been linked with a possible deal but it is believed that shareholders are keener to support investment in the group’s expanding digital operations rather than more print. It is notable that 43% of revenue in 2020 was from advertising and 31% from copy sales, with only 15% from digital.
Last year, Archant sold The New European monthly magazine for £467k including liabilities, to former executive Matt Kelly and a consortium which included Mark Thomson (ex CEO of the New York Times), and Lionel Barber (ex editor-in-chief of the Financial Times).
The low Archant digital statistics will have caught the attention of National World Plc which acquired the former Johnston Press newspaper group for £10m in 2021, but which had previously sought to buy Archant. The company, under the leadership of UK newspaper veteran David Montgomery recently disclosed that its 2021 revenue of some £85m would include 20% growth in digital. The company has a cash balance of £23m.
Its busy year has included:
- Launch of seven new “World” news sites in major cities, not historically served by JPI newspapers, giving the business a UK-wide footprint
- National World. com, a flagship national online newspaper, continues to grow seven months after launch;
- Targeted annualised cost savings in excess of £5m
- Substantial rationalisation of office space
National World must be itching to get hold of the Norfolk-based Archant.
