National World plc headquarters in Leeds. Picture: Google Streetview
Direct marketing business and Irish local newspaper publisher Media Concierge has launched a bid to take control of the UK’s third-largest regional media group National World.
Media Concierge, which also owns Irish newspapers including the Donegal Democrat and Limerick Leader through subsidiary Iconic Media Group, was one of National World’s original backers and already holds 27.8% of its shares.
Media Concierge abstained in a vote chief executive David Montgomery’s continued leadership of the business at the company’s last annual general meeting in May, Press Gazette understands. Since then National World has discontinued a longstanding business relationship with Media Concierge subsidiary Mediaforce, which had until then handled national advertising for the company. National World now sells its national print advertising through competitor Reach.
The group has proposed to buy the remaining equity at 21 pence per share, which it says would be “a significant premium” of 40% on its London Stock Exchange price. National World closed at 15p per share on Thursday and Media Concierge said its volume-weighted price over the preceding six months was 14.8 pence.
The bidder said the price offered represented “a highly attractive and deliverable opportunity for National World shareholders to realise their investment at a substantial premium in cash”.
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National World shares leapt more than 20% on Friday morning, reaching a year-long high of 19.25 pence.
Media Concierge revealed its bid on Friday morning, saying it first made the proposal on 31 October but that it has received “no substantive engagement to date” from the National World board. Its offer values the company’s share capital at £56.2m in total, a significant increase on its last sale price of £10.2m.
National World publishes titles including The Scotsman, The Yorkshire Post and eponymous national news site nationalworld.com. It was formed by career media executive David Montgomery in 2020 to take on the assets of the former Johnston Press, then named JPI Media.
Since then the company has made repeated rounds of significant job cuts, including proposed redundancies this month in Sunderland and Manchester and a voluntary redundancy round at The Scotsman.
Press Gazette calculated in July 2023 that National World had cut its total workforce 27% since taking over JPI Media. NUJ staff members held strike action in 2023 in the company’s first-ever nationwide walkout, and held a second strike a month later was approved but ultimately did not go ahead.
National World reported revenue growth of 5% in its most recent annual report, which had been bolstered by a string of acquisitions in 2023.
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