National World acquires regional newspaper publisher JPI Media
REGIONAL newspaper publisher JPI Media has been snapped up by National World, the media takeover vehicle led by Northern Ireland man David Montgomery, in a £10.2 million deal.
National World has said it expects the takeover of JPI, which publishes The Yorkshire Post, The Scotsman and dozens of other titles, to complete tomorrow (January 2).
It said the JPI acquisition will provide a platform for National World to “implement its strategy of creating a sustainable local online news publishing model”.
JPI is estimated to have posted £85m in revenues and £6m in earnings for the past year.
The r e g i o nal newspaper group, which was previously called Johnston Press, has been seeking a buyer since 2018 and sold The i newspaper to Daily
Mail owner DMGT last year for almost £50m.
Mr Montgomery, who was previously chief executive of the Mirror Group, has targeted a deal for JPI since National World was launched with a stock market float last year. National World said it has funded the deal from its cash resources and by issuing £8.4m in loan notes.
It added it plans to issue further loan notes during January.
Industry veteran Mr Montgomery, who is chairman of National World, said: “JPI’S brands represent the best in journalism and have reliably served their communities and supported local businesses, in some cases for centuries, and never more than in the last year.
“National World will uphold this tradition and implement modern technology to grow the business based on high quality, unique content.”