Welcome the supergroup

No it is not the return of 1970's bands with long names but the newspaper supergroup in response to the crisis in the media industry.

According to the Observer today,newspaper groups are going to ask the government to waive the rules on competition in order that the industry can survive.

Investment bankers have drawn up plans for leading players such as Johnston Press, Trinity Mirror, Newsquest, and Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), the "big four" regional newspaper groups, to swap assets or merge operations.

It is an interesting strategy.Mergers allowing economies of scale are a well trodden solution for industries in trouble but they also come up again competition rules.

In this case the rule is that no organisation can have more than 25 per cent of advertising in an area.