Johnson Press are busy denying they’ll sell The Scotsman newspaper. The rebuttal follows an article in The Sunday Times by Iain Dey and James Ashton which headlined “Bid to buy The Scotsman from troubled Johnston Press”.
Dey and Ashton put forward a piece in which Martin Gilbert, the CEO of Aberdeen Asset Management, Ben Thomson and Mark Shaw had teamed together to buy the paper. The Scotsman was sold to Johnston Press back in 2005 for £160m by the Barclay Brothers. The Sunday Times reports that Johnston Press is trying their best to unload the newspaper for no less than £40m.
Judith Townend reports that Journalism.co.uk received a statement from Johnston Press which denies the report.
“Johnston Press notes the press speculation regarding the potential disposal of the Scotsman.
“Whilst Company policy is not to comment on such speculation, Johnston Press can confirm that the board does not have any disposal process underway in this regard.”
Here’s a question; what do you think Johnston Press should do? Do they try and hang on to The Scotsman, sell it only if they get an unreasonably high offer or sell it once someone offers their minimum threshold price?
August 24, 2009
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