Douglas McCabe was quoted in the FT on advice books written by millennial women for peers who are trying to navigate a working life. Douglas observes that criticisms of older career books echo “the criticism that many executives make about MBA programmes today — that there is too much focus on business principles and case studies from before, say, 2000, when the business world started to be turned upside down”
Douglas McCabe was quoted in the FT on the decline in print advertising and the effects on Johnston Press. Douglas said “The fundamental problem is not just the decline in print, it’s also that Johnston Press and other local publishers have not been able to generate meaningful revenues online. A lot of the marketing money has not stuck to the local news bundle, as publishers had hoped.”
Douglas McCabe was quoted in the FT on the sale of Johnston Press. Analysts said strategic buyers would include Reach, formerly known as Trinity Mirror, and Newsquest, which both have large local newspaper portfolios. But the debt may scare off potential bidders. Douglas said “The question is, can they sell the whole portfolio or is there an inevitability about it being broken up?”
James Barford was paraphrased in The Financial Times in an article on Comcast’s plans for Sky’s broadband business. James argued they may “look to boost Sky’s telecoms arm by investing in business telecoms, given it has a strong presence in the US, or by buying spectrum to boost its mobile arm. However, he said it was also possible that it could look to acquire companies such as TalkTalk, which has 4.2m broadband customers, or smaller competitors.”
Alice Enders appeared on BBC Radio 4 to discuss the upcoming Sky auction
James Barford appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss roaming after Brexit. He concluded that customers of larger operators travelling to big European countries are unlikely to be affected. There may be issues with smaller European countries if operators there play hardball and offer high wholesale rates to UK operators. In 2017 most of the UK operators made a big deal out of the introduction of free roaming, so customers might feel let down if this is reversed without good reason and the operators will not want to irritate them in this way.
Douglas McCabe was quoted in an article on the Telegraph Media Group’s 32% dip in operating profits which comes in face of declining print advertising. Nick Hugh, TMG’s Chief Executive since summer 2017, plans to reverse this decline by through registration. He aims to have 10m registered users and a target of 3m by the end of the 2018 fiscal year. Douglas stated that “At one level no one wants to embrace a big profit decline, but on the other hand it does reflect a strategic investment in journalism which looks sensible, as does the focus on membership and subscriptions.”
Claire Enders was quoted in an article on Gavin Patterson’s departure from BT. The Group abruptly pushed out Chief Executive Officer Gavin Patterson after the board and investors lost faith in his turnaround plan for the former phone monopoly. Patterson will step down later this year when a successor is in place, likely in the second half, BT said in a statement Friday. Mr Patterson’s position had been in question outside the boardroom since an Italian accounting scandal blew up 18 months ago, with the company then beset by profit warnings and record fines, and amid questions over its investment in sports and ability to deal with an unhappy national regulator. Claire joked that he might make a suitable candidate to replace Richard Scudamore as head of the Premier League given the amount of BT money he had spent on content rights. She said “No one has been more generous to football than Gavin Patterson”.
Douglas McCabe was quoted in an article on Jeff Bezos, whom after his success in taking The Washington Post global is rumoured to be looking at ways to add to his publishing portfolio. Under the Amazon founder’s direction, the Post has been transformed from a local newspaper fixated on Capitol Hill skulduggery to a national heavyweight with more than 1m digital subscribers. If the rumour mill is to be believed, the 54-year-old is eyeing further acquisitions in the publishing sphere. Douglas said “Amazon has a forensic attention to detail on getting the right service for consumers. Bezos has applied the same rationale to The Washington Post”. He added, “this industry spent 20 years teaching everyone in the world that news should be free. The truth is, readers are smarter than that. They know high-quality journalism is expensive to produce and they are willing to pay for it, but you have to ask them”.
Claire Enders was quoted in an article on Walt Disney, who has waded into the years-long dispute over Rupert Murdoch’s influence in UK media by offering to buy Sky News, attempting to ease political and regulatory fears that Fox’s acquisition of the television outlet would deepen the media mogul’s dominance in Britain. Claire said that Fox has presented two very credible options to the CMA. But she added that the regulator or Matt Hancock, the culture secretary, could look to extract a “third option” from the company which would involve Disney also committing to a governance and independence model. She said “It may be that this is not enough and the secretary of state may want to get his pound of flesh as well”.