Penningtons Manches advises Newsquest on its acquisition of Romanes Media Group

Posted: 02/06/2015

Newsquest Media Group Ltd, one of the UK’s largest regional media groups with more than 150 brands, has acquired Romanes Media Group, a local news publishing business operating in Scotland, Berkshire and Northern Ireland, for an undisclosed sum. 

Romanes employs 270 staff and its newspaper portfolio comprises one daily, 19 weekly paid-fors and nine weekly free newspapers plus associated websites. 

Newsquest was advised on the acquisition by Penningtons Manches, a law firm specialising in the media, publishing and advertising sector. The firm’s multidisciplinary team of corporate, property, employment, tax, pensions and commercial, IP and IT specialists worked closely with Newsquest on all aspects of the deal. The Scottish headquartered law firm, Brodies, acted for Newsquest on the acquisition of the Scottish properties. 

Paul Hunter, Newquest Group Finance Director, said: “We appreciated the range of expertise offered by the Penningtons Manches team, the effective co-ordination of the specialists and the commercial awareness of the deal team."

Corporate partner, Chris Owen, who led the team, said: "We were delighted to work with Newsquest Media Group to support their strategic aim of consolidating their presence in the local multi-media publishing industry both in England and north of the Border."

Newsquest reaches over 20 million visitors a month online and 6.5 million readers a week in print. Its news brands include The Northern Echo (Darlington), Telegraph & Argus (Bradford), Southern Daily Echo (Southampton), Swindon Advertiser, Lancashire Telegraph (Blackburn) The Argus (Brighton), The Press (York), Oxford Mail, Worcester News and South Wales Argus (Newport), and The Herald (Glasgow). Its digital brands include s1 and Exchange & Mart.

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