Newsflow for Express?
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• Express Newspapers is on the brink of handing its multimillion-pound national distribution business to Newsflow, the National Carriers subsidiary, after intense negotiations this week.
Doug Cartin of Newsflow, which won rival Associated Newspapers distribution contract two weeks ago, will not "confirm anything until next week", but the expected deal is a major coup over TNT Newsfast and British Rail which held both contracts until the end of 1989.
The Daily Express and Sunday Express have combined circulations of over 2.5 million. Express Newspapers group circulation controller Brian Bingham will only say that the group has been talking with Newsflow — as well as Newsfast and BR — for several weeks, and that a major announcement is due within weeks.
Tom Bell of TNT Newsflow, which distributes for Rupert Murdoch's News International, says it has been negotiating with Express Newspapers for 18 months and has submitted a tender. "Obviously Newsfiow and ourselves are both waiting for a decision. As fax as I know, none has been made."
The contract will only be for trunking to regional distribution depots. Newspaper wholesale deliveries are usually handled by local operators and retailers like W H Smith and Menzies, although TNT made inroads into News International wholesaling when the publishing group rationalised its delivery system early this year.