Selling the press short

They have just divested themselves of most of the Guardian's regional newspapers and their associated websites, flogging them to the Trinity Mirror group.

The deal includes the Manchester Evening News, which draws virtually to an end the Guardian group's historic association with the city.

Unfortunately, Guardian Media Group chief executive Carolyn McCall seems to have completely lost the plot regarding the plight of the newspaper industry.

Making the announcement, Ms McCall proclaimed that Trinity Mirror was "best placed" to develop the business. Best placed, Ms McCall? Trinity Mirror said last year that print revenues from its regionals were down from £414.3 million in 2007 to £358m in 2008, while overall group revenues fell by almost £100m.

In 2009, Trinity announced a pay freeze following hard on the heels of axing 1,200 jobs and closing 44 titles.

Just a year ago the group announced that a quarter of journalists at the Daily Record and Sunday Mail newspapers were to lose their jobs.

Trinity Mirror North West and Wales announced in November that it was to reduce editorial numbers at its Merseyside base.

The group confirmed the closure of the Wrexham Chronicle, the Mid-Cheshire Chronicle and the Whit-church Herald on September 28.

And, in February 2009, the Times reported that the group was to cut out its final dividend after reporting a full-year pre-tax loss of £73.5m.

So, if that's a company best suited to develop the business, well god help the business.

Selling the regionals to Trinity is not much of a reward for a staff about whom Ms McCall said: "GMG would like to pay tribute to all the staff for their hard work and achievement."

The consequences of this sale are likely to be vicious for the staff and it's no surprise that GMG Regional Media chief executive Mark Dodson and MEN Media managing director Ruth Spratt have decided to leave. And those consequences are likely to be even more severe for the future of local media generally.

The local and regional press is being swallowed up by just a few huge groups owning and running virtually the entire industry, which bodes ill for any hopes of an independent voice in any locality.

Jobs, titles and campaigning possibilities are vanishing at a rate of knots and the role of the press in acting as any kind of independent monitor of local and regional politicians is now virtually defunct.

NUJ deputy general secretary Michelle Stanistreet put it well when she warned that "this all raises issues of editorial independence which should be of concern to government and community leaders as well as the media industry."

But, back to finance and one is entitled to wonder how a company that is continually cutting back on staff and pleading poverty when it comes to freezing pay can possibly afford £44.8m for a group that posted an operating profit of zero in the 12 months to December and has gross assets of only £8.7m.

If Trinity Mirror just happens to have the odd 50 million quid sloshing around in its coffers, it can't have been in all that bad a way, can it?

And if it hadn't got the cash and has financed the deal by borrowing, one can only hope that the resulting debt mountain won't be passed onto the papers.

The independence and freedom of the press has always been a bit of a capitalist fiction. However, the continued concentration of ownership and power in the hands of fewer and fewer individuals is making a bad situation worse.

And with the state of government and finance, voices of dissent have never been more needed.