The Evolving Newsroom

From the BBC:

Sir Anthony O’Reilly, the chief executive of the publisher of The Independent newspaper, is to step down.

Sir Anthony, 72, has been involved with Independent News & Media for 36 years, and has a 28.6% stake in the group.

His son, Gavin O’Reilly, who joined the business 16 years ago, will take over the role from 7 May.

The group publishes more than 200 newspapers and magazines across 22 countries. It owns about 40% of Australia’s APN News & Media.

In addition to Sir Anthony’s departure, the company’s board will be revamped, with new people being brought in, but the size of the board being cut to 10 members from 1

Came on the heels of:

(From Irish Times) SIR ANTHONY O’Reilly and his long-time rival Denis O’Brien are coming under mounting pressure from Independent News Media’s bankers to cast aside their differences in advance of a looming deadline for repayment of a €200 million bond.

A public rapprochement between the two men is considered increasingly likely as Independent’s bankers seek an end to their bickering as a condition of any new agreement to help the company meet its repayment obligations in May. The institutions in question include AIB and Bank of Ireland, it is understood.

Sir Anthony and Mr O’Brien, who long have been at loggerheads over Independent’s governance and strategic direction, have each lost hundreds of millions of euro as a result of the collapse in its share price, down almost 95 per cent in the past year.

And on the heels of:

(From the Sunday Business Post) A group of banks, led by AIB, has been granted a charge over three of Independent News & Media’s main Irish newspaper titles, as part of a credit facility negotiated at the end of last year.

The charge covers shares in several key INM subsidiaries and a specific charge over the Irish Independent, Sunday Independent and Evening Herald titles.

The amount of the loan is not specified, but Companies Office filings show that AIB, as lead banker in the facility, was also granted the charge over the companies that own the Independent newspaper titles in London, and the subsidiary , Independent Communications (International) Ltd, which owns a controlling stake in Tribune Newspapers plc, publisher of the Sunday Tribune.

In the same week:

(via Scoop) March 13 – Joan Withers resigned as head of Fairfax Media’s New Zealand operations after almost five years in the job.

Withers will leave on June 30, according to a company statement today. She first took up the role in July 2005.

The publisher of the Dominion Post and Sunday Star-Times last month posted a first-half loss of A$365 million as advertising revenue dwindled and the company wrote down the value of its mastheads and media licenses. Sales rose 0.5% to A$1.45 billion.

The company said trading conditions have weakened and classified advertising is expected to remain weak for the rest of the financial year.