The OFT’s decision not to investigate Alexander Lebedev’s acquisition of the Independent and the Independent On Sunday tells us that the newspapers generate revenues of less than £70m a year.
This brings us closer to solving a mystery. For years, the financials of the Indies have been lumped in with a series of other businesses – including the Belfast Telegraph — in the accounts produced by Independent News & Media (INM). It’s been impossible to figure out how well, or how badly, they’re doing.
A decade ago, it was easier. In 2000, for example, the two papers generated revenues of £74.5m, according to documents filed at Companies House. Allowing for inflation, this equates to slightly less than £100m in today’s money.
So now we know that the Independent and the Independent On Sunday generate less revenue in real terms today than they did a decade ago. More to the point, perhaps, they also generate far smaller revenues than any of their rivals.
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Last year, Times Newspapers, which publishes the Times and the Sunday Times, turned over £445m. During 2008, the Telegraph Media Group’s publishing operations generated revenues of £343m. In the year to March 2008, Guardian News & Media, which publishes the Guardian and the Observer, turned over £262m.
Nearly 20 years ago, Stephen Glover wrote a book called Paper Dreams, a memoir of his time at the Independent. Glover recorded how he, Matthew Symonds and Andreas Whittam-Smith dreamed of building ‘a billion-pound company”.
The really remarkable thing about the Independent these days is that it manages to survive on less than £70m a year — or £200,000 a day.
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That’s testament to the heroic efforts of staff and the patience of INM. But the survival of these newspapers, against all odds, tells us something else.
In a decade’s time, the idea of a national news organisation surviving on this kind of revenue base won’t sound remarkable. In this respect, the Indies represent the future of national newspaper publishing, rather than its past.
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