Iliffe Media has joined with the Fowler family to buy the Tindle Newspapers group, four years after the death at 95 years old of founder Sir Ray Tindle.
The joint ownership of the Tindle business mirrors that of the Highland News & Media jointly owned by the Fowler family and Iliffe since 2019. The arrangement also works for the Newbury Weekly News and Stratford Herald.
The move strengthens a commitment to local newspapers Tindle chairman Owen Tindle told staff. “We believe this change of ownership represents the best strategy to enable the local brands you work on to succeed in the years ahead.”
Tindle Newspapers publishes some of the oldest newspapers in the country and has also been focused on what is now known as hyperlocal publishing. This has kept titles in print for far longer than might have been the case had ownership been in the hands of one of the major groups. It has also protected print against a full transition to digital only publishing.
Many of the titles are available in digital form, the company aiming at subscription led growth. This is a similar mix to Iliffe’s strategy. It publishes across Cambridgeshire and East Anglia, and following its acquisition of the Kent Messenger group, across Kent. It operates a KBA equipped print operation in Cambridge.
The Tindle empire is more diffuse with titles across Surrey, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Wales and the the Isle of Man, Ray Tindle famously used £300 demob money to buy the Balham & Tooting Gazette after service in World War II. Acquisitions followed, many of titles that were on the brink of closure. He remained in charge until 2017 before handling control to his son Owen.
At one time the group published around 200 different titles, reduced in recent years through closures. Like Iliffe, Tindle also operates local radio stations.
In his address to staff, Owen Tindle explained that the decision to sell was not easy continuing to say “Given the scale and pace of digital transformation within our industry, and the competition from the tech giants, we believe that now is the right moment to pass the baton to an owner with the scale, expertise and resources to ensure the long term sustainability of quality local journalism.”
