Newsquest is proposing to buy CN Group, one of the largest remaining regional newspaper publishers in the UK.
The proposal has been accepted by the board of the fourth generation family business and now needs only shareholder approval. Last year the group sold its two local radio stations, serving the north west, to Global Radio.
CN Group chairman Robin Burgess says: “A member of my family has run this company for the past four generations so this sale is the end of en era and is tinged with sadness.
“However, our ability to prosper as a medium-sized independent group in light of digital and social media development, has become increasingly difficult and it is clear that the challenges will only get harder.
“Faced with these and other issues, including the pension deficit, we came to the conclusion that a sales of the publishing business is the best way forward for all sole stakeholders. We are confident that under new ownership, the group’s titles and sites will continue to serve their communities as they have in the past.”
CN Group is based in Cumbria with CN Newsprint and its production operation is in Carlisle. The company had been the first in the UK to fit Kodak inkjet heads to offer personalisation at normal press speed. The plant prints the group’s titles across Cumbria, Lancashire and into Scotland as well as third party publications under contract.
Today CN Newsprint runs an eight-tower KBA Comet delivering up to 128pp full colour tabloid pages. It prints for a wide range of customers who want newspaper style products and will continue to do so according, to declarations from the business.
CN CEO Miller Hogg says:”We still remain a local company with local brans serving the local community. The deal will provide certainty for our local staff for a sustainable future and with a media group capable for investing for the print and digital world we live in.”
The KBA Comet at CNnewsprint is capable of printing a 128pp tabloid. As well as the group’s newspapers, the company prints for a number of contract clients.
