Yorkshire Post and Scotsman owner JPI snapped up in £10.2m deal

Regional newspaper publisher JPI Media has been snapped up by National World, the media takeover vehicle led by industry veteran David Montgomery, in a £10.2 million deal.

National World has said it expects the takeover of JPI, which publishes The Yorkshire Post, The Scotsman and dozens of other titles, to complete on Saturday January 2.

It said the JPI acquisition will provide a platform for National World to “implement its strategy of creating a sustainable local online news publishing model”.

JPI is estimated to have posted £85 million in revenues and £6 million in earnings for the past year.

The regional newspaper group, which was previously called Johnston Press, has been seeking a buyer since 2018 and sold The i newspaper to Daily Mail owner DMGT last year for almost £50 million.

Mr Montgomery, who was previously chief executive of the Mirror Group, has targeted a deal for JPI since National World was launched with a stock market float last year.

National World said it has funded the deal from its cash resources and by issuing £8.4 million in loan notes.

It added it plans to issue further loan notes during January.

Mr Montgomery, who is chairman of National World, said: “JPI’s historic publishing brands represent the best in journalism and have reliably served their communities and supported local businesses, in some cases for centuries, and never more than in the last year.

“National World will uphold this tradition and implement modern technology to grow the business across a wider footprint based on high quality, unique content.

“I am pleased with the appointment of Mark Hollinshead as chief commercial officer and welcome Daniel Cammiade to the board.

“We have a very experienced board with extensive knowledge in digital and print publishing to deliver our transformational strategy for growth.”