Montgomerie under attack for cost cutting

The other day a very senior and successful Fleet Street figure told me that in 15 years there will only be two national newspapers: The Sun and the Daily Mail. All the rest will disappear under a burden of debt, after years of making losses.

writes Stephen Glover in the Indy this morning

He doesn't say who the successful figure was.It wasn't David Montgomerie who called the traditional newspaper model

"bankrupt, unviable, finished.

and who Stephen describes as having

assembled a newspaper empire in the good times which is now disintegrating in the bad. He really only has one weapon, which is cost-cutting, which he applies again and again.

and whom he says lacks vision

The point is that many struggling newspapers employ round after round of salami slicing in which cuts are applied across the board. There is no time, or inclination, to sit down and think: what do our core readers value most of all, and what might they be prepared to do without? Everything is cut evenly, so that the paper ends up as a pale, weaker version of its former sense. There is an alternative – to ring-fence, even to improve, what the paper does best, while conceding that it cannot necessarily do everything.

A bullish Montgomerie who claims to have cracked themedia business model

A blast from the past in the Observer this morning as James Robinson catches up with David Montgomerie former Today editor who is now embroiled in Europe media matters.

His concern ,Mecom,covers 300 papers in five countries and has substantial operations in the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Germany and Poland, together publishing approximately 30 million copies a week

Last week though saw its share price plunge as its operating profits fell 63 % on the back of intense competition in Denmark which represents its largest coverage with over 35% of its turnover.

Montgomerie though is not deterred

It's caution rather than any lack of confidence in our approach. We can't be immune to an advertising downturn and we can't escape some of the slowdown, but we have a different business model.'

and he maintains that unlike many Uk based operations his exposure in five markets makes it less vulnerable to downturns.For Montgomerie

'The old model of a single set of staff producing a single newspaper is simply not viable,' adding that all his journalists will be required to work across different titles and platforms; 'that transformation is at the core of our developments.' But he points out that they will retrained, and many will be paid more as a result. 'This has never been purely a cost-cutting story because cost cuts will be eaten up by wage inflation.'