The
Tindle newspaper group announced this week that it has had its most
successful year, with pre-tax profits over £8 million – up 25 per cent
on the previous year.
Chairman Sir Ray Tindle told a conference
of 25 of his top management from around the country that the number of
titles in the group had risen from 130 to more than 200 through
launches and acquisitions.
Total circulation per issue, including weeklies, fortnightlies and monthlies, is now 1,269,494.
Sir
Ray praised his managers and group managing director Brian Doel for
“not at all a bad effort”. He added: “This is a wonderful achievement
for an independent family business started with only a wartime
soldier’s gratuity of £300 and the loyalty of a dedicated staff.”
The pre-tax profit represents a 25 per cent return on turnover of just over £32 million.
Sir Ray said the UK’s local press was the finest in the world and he forecast an “extremely bright and certain future”.
He
said: “Nothing has been invented yet which will knock us out. There is
no substitute: the best local weeklies will live for ever in the UK.”
He and Doel emphasised to the conference that editorial content was vitally important to the future of newspapers.
Said
Sir Ray: “You’ll survive for ever if you give your readers what they
have always wanted – strictly local, parochial news; local names, local
faces, local people, local places.”
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
