Trinity Mirror (TM) has acquired Guardian Media Group’s (GMG) regional media business for £7.4 million cash, also releasing GMG from a £37.4 million liability print contract

The deal is the first significant consolidation play since the cyclical downturn that started in 2008 helped reduce local newspaper advertising by about 35% or £1 billion. TM is understood to have beaten private equity to the deal, signalling that consolidation activity in local media may be starting to warm up

While the price tag appears small for a business that generated £94.5 million in FY 2009, its operating profit had fallen to £0.5 million, and TM should be able to realise measurable local synergies and cost savings

Unity Media sold its 14.58% stake in German pay-TV operator Premiere to News Corporation at the start of 2008, prompting speculation of a full takeover by News Corporation later in the year

The Guardian Media Group (GMG) sale of a minority stake of Trader Media, publisher of AutoTrader, in 2007 is well timed to maximise its price, given the preponderance of downside risks to classified print adverts

Germany’s Sky platform has shifted focus from maximising net additions to improving quality of new recruits, delivering accelerated ARPU growth and a likely future reduction in churn.

In 2014, Sky will turn back to more proactive recruitment, but we caution against expectations of an improvement in the underlying trend growth rate.

Sky is in on course to deliver its first full year positive EBITDA in 2013, although we still don’t expect cash flow to follow suit before FY 2015.

Claire Enders set out the implications of a Yes vote in the Scottish independence referendum for the media available in Scotland. She critically examines the SNP's plans for a Scottish media, and argues that Scotland's small population would make an independent media hard to sustain. When the effect of a nationalist 'nation-building' project is factored in too, the overall results would be serious costs to the quality of democracy Scots enjoy.