Racingpost Sold

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This a good or bad thing? Or will there be no change/difference at all? On TRF it was mooted such a take over would result in a charge introduced to access the Racingpost website.


RACING POST SOLD FOR £170m
By Graeme Evans, PA City Editor
Newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror said today it has sold the Racing Post to an Irish investment firm for £170million.
The deal with FL Partners was accompanied by news that Trinity Mirror will keep hold of its titles in the Midlands, including the Birmingham Post.
The Daily Mirror owner said in December that it planned to sell the Racing Post and a number of regional businesses as part of a strategy to focus on national and digital assets and its papers in Scotland, the north of England and Wales.
The overall disposal programme will raise a total of £263million from the sale of the Racing Post and seven businesses in London and the South East.
Two remaining operations in the South East will also be kept, alongside the Midlands arm. Trinity Mirror said offers for the assets did not reflect their true value, while conditions in debt markets also impacted on the process.
Chief executive Sly Bailey said: "We believe it is now right to bring our disposal process to a close. The process will enable Trinity Mirror to go forward as a more tightly-focused media group, which is nimbler and more able to respond to the opportunities in its markets."
The company will pay £10million to four specified charities connected to the racing industry as a condition of the transfer of a licence to use the Racing Post trademark. It agreed to do this at the suggestion of Sheikh Mohammed, who founded the Racing Post title in 1986.
The Racing Post agreement includes the paper's website, a number of weekly and annual racing publications, plus related publications for the betting industry.
The new owners plan to invest "significant resources" developing the business, focusing in particular on additional online and multimedia services as well as expanding into new markets.
Alan Byrne, editor of the Racing Post from 1993 to 2002, has been appointed chief executive and editor-in-chief with immediate effect. Peter Crowley and Neill Hughes, the backers of Dublin-based FL Partners, will be joint-chairmen of the Racing Post.
Mr Byrne said: "Everyone in the racing, bloodstock and betting industries relies on the Racing Post as the definitive source of data and quality editorial coverage.
"It is our job now to ensure that it meets and exceeds their expectations."
 
The company will pay £10million to four specified charities connected to the racing industry as a condition of the transfer of a licence to use the Racing Post trademark. It agreed to do this at the suggestion of Sheikh Mohammed, who founded the Racing Post title in 1986.
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Anyone know which four? Nice windfall.
 
Another good deed from Sheikh Mo - good on him


The Racing Post has already said that a charge is going to be made for online access. Investment in the new betting site is no doubt part of this. On a positive note, as the new buyers are Irish, we will probably get better coverage of Irish racing in terms of results and maybe cards and previews too.

I wonder what the situation will be regarding the photo archive - will try to find out. I presume it's been sold with the paper; but it was some years ago amalgamated online with the Trinity Mirror photo archive so it will be very hard to hive off now. And those actual photos which were never put online will now be impossible to access I imagine - they are stored in a warehouse in Watford and only one guy knows anything about them, and he's too busy to look for things... This does worry me in terms of holding on to racing's history. Maybe I'll contact Empics [big sporting photo agency] and get them to try to buy the residual material. As I've posted before a lot of the old stuff passed on form Sporting Life was put in a skip :ph34r:
 
The charities are the Injured Jockeys' Fund, Retraining Of Racehorses, Racing Welfare and DAFA. Each get £2.5m.
 
“Brough Scott, who helped found the Racing Post in 1986, added: "This is a day all of us at the Racing Post have been waiting for.

"We are going to have an independent paper focused on serving the racing industry, and a business that can be developed for the multimedia era”

Interesting quote from Scott regarding the paper’s independence. I wonder did the Sheikh ,or at least those who ran the company for him, have a major part in the slant the RP took on some of the hot issues?
 
I'd say it's more a remark aimed at the paper having to constantly justify itself to Trinity Mirror and their shareholders.
 
The purchase from Trinity-Mirror includes racingpost.co.uk, three weekly titles (Racing & Football Outlook, Raceform Update and Racing Post Weekender), plus the Betting Shop Display, and publications under the Raceform banner.
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Surely it's time to merge the three weeklies? Or at least the RF Update and Weekender?
 
Originally posted by Galileo@Oct 2 2007, 09:52 AM

Interesting quote from Scott regarding the paper’s independence. I wonder did the Sheikh ,or at least those who ran the company for him, have a major part in the slant the RP took on some of the hot issues?
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Sheikh Mo put up the money to *found* the RP following the demise of The Sopotsman, but it was subsequently wholly owned and run by Mirror Newspapers, and as such was subordinate to the main paper and other moneyspinners in a big stable of titles. I've worked from the RP office when using the picture database, and it's amazing what a small staff they have had - everyone is flat out nonstop.

Sheikh Mo never had any input whatever into the paper, he was just philanthropic in making sure a racing paper was available to the industry. He must have retained some kind of 'Godfathe3r' role though to have ensured this windfall for racing charities - after all his seedcorn has enabled TrinityMirror to make this sale / profit
 
He did it by retaining ownership of the Racing Post trademark, merely licensing it to Trinity Mirror. He still owns it, and he got the £10m for charity out of Trinity Mirror in return for agreeing to transfer that license.
 
Ah, thanks for that clarification, I thought TM had bought the papers outright.
I'm sure he never had any editorial input though, and TM wouldn't have countenanced it anyway.
Though it might explain their sometimes less than robust criticism of the Godolphin trainer :laughing:
 
I haven't seen it in the flesh, but judging by the picture of the cover on the RP site horse racing is not the main story. A condition set by Sheikh Mohammed when he leased the name to Mirror Group was that horse racing would always be the primary story on the front page.

I guess that no longer stands since the sale, which seems a bit of a shame to me.
 
Originally posted by Gareth Flynn@Jul 2 2008, 10:38 AM
I haven't seen it in the flesh, but judging by the picture of the cover on the RP site horse racing is not the main story. A condition set by Sheikh Mohammed when he leased the name to Mirror Group was that horse racing would always be the primary story on the front page.

I guess that no longer stands since the sale, which seems a bit of a shame to me.
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Given that the big racing story of the day is that Tony Martin has runners at Perth, I can let them off!
 
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