News revolution rolls on
Page 20
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Two more of Britain's leading publishers, Mirror Group and IPC, are to radically overhaul their distribution by reducing their network of wholesalers and putting several contracts up for grabs with road transport firms.
The country's biggest magazine publisher, IPC, has told its wholesalers they must tender for new distribution contracts in two months. The move is designed to cut costs and follows the trend set by Rupert Murdoch's News International in January. It is likely to set a pattern for other magazine publishers. TNT and National Carriers Contract Division are believed to be among the dis tributors battling with established wholesalers for IPC contracts. TNT has already won 34 News International franchises this year.
IPC's move could hurt high street retailers like W H Smith and John Menzies, which both lost several contracts in the New International shake-up. Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail, has already reorganised its wholesale network and looks set to move its long-distance distribution from rail to road. National Carriers, which is competing for the trunking part of the IPC network, is favourite to scope that large contract.
Robert Maxwell-owned Mirror Group is making half its wholesalers in England and Wales redundant. It is reducing the numbner to 281. They will pick up newspapers from regional depots supplied by Newsflow part of National Carriers, which already has the Mirror Group contract.
The group could also drop its London wholesale network.