Financial crisis or cyclical turndown?
Brian Knox-Peebles
UK newspapers have problems - debt, the recession, competitive media trends, and future uncertainties. This tour d'horizon of the industry's sectors also finds some underlying strengths
Several factors are confusing a clear reading of the British newspaper industry, and its current financial status.
The first of these is the high level of indebtedness taken on by several major companies before the onset of the present recession, either as a result of over-ambitious development policies, or as spillovers of the programmes of investment essential to moving out of Fleet Street. These debts are...