Monday 31st August: Archant bought by private equity, shareholders wiped out

It's Monday again and this morning's Media Roundup is brought to you by Peter.

Press Gazette is reporting that Archant - the UK’s fourth biggest local newspaper publisher - has been bought by private equity firm Rcapital. Under the deal, shareholders, including employees, will be left with nothing.

The proposed 'Company Voluntary Arrangement' will give creditors a percentage of what they are owed, but more than they would get if the business was liquidated and potentially give the new owners 'more room to invest'. The government’s Pension Protection Fund will also take over Archant's pension scheme, saving an estimated £3 million a year.

Chief executive Simon Bax said “the impact of the downturn on our advertising and circulation revenues due to Covid-19 has been profound”. Archant needs least 75% creditor approval for the CVA for it to proceed, but Bax is confident of a 'bright future' for the business. We hope he's right.

OMGFG!!! Just what the UK needs - a hyper-partisan news service to rile up the defund the BBC crowd. The runners and riders include 'GB News' whose founder thinks the BBC is “possibly the most biased propaganda machine in the world”. 🤦🏼‍♂️

With all that's going on with Tik Tok - bans, buy outs and the resignation of a new CEO just three-months in - publishers are still eyeing the upstart video platform as a possible revenue generator. Good luck with that guys.

“There is a cure for Covid-19... It must be true because a doctor friend shared a Facebook post." This is a scary article by two doctors who say that, seven months into the pandemic, the virus continues to spread alongside medical myths and health hoaxes.

Today's throwback:

This is an old one, from way back in 2017, but with the news at Archant it seemed like a good time to remind ourselves of the amazing work the team at the New European have done.

Buy the three of us a coffee equivalent. It makes us happy and when we're happy we do newsletter and podcast stuff better. Really, you should think of it as an investment 🤔