Trinity Mirror has become the latest publisher to abandon news distribution firm Dawson Holdings, announcing it will not renew its £65m contract when it expires in October.
This is the latest in a series of substantial contract losses for Dawson, which has seen Telegraph Media Group, Comag and Associated Newspapers decide to switch distributors.
In its “dramatic and profoundly disappointing” half-year results yesterday, Dawson announced a £16.7m operating loss after making an impairment charge to reflect the lost business.
Dawson’s two biggest competitors are John Menzies in the north of the UK and Smiths News in the south.
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“The UK’s news supply chain has effectively been transformed overnight from one of three national and a number of smaller independent wholesalers into one dominated by two regional monopolies, with the de facto exclusion of our business from the market,” Dawson said yesterday.
“We have fallen victim to a major restructuring of our industry’s supply chain whereby Dawson News, as the smallest of the three major players, has been squeezed out.”
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