MPs told title swaps only offer 'limited savings' for big regional newspaper publishers

Interesting comments from Northcliffe managing director Michael Pelosi in the Commons today which appered to poor cold water on all the speculation that we were heading for major swap and takeover deals among the big regional newspaper publishers.
HoldtheFrontPage reports Pelosi telling the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which is investigating the state of the regional press, that asset-swaps between the big publishing companies would deliver only "limited" savings.
As HTFP says:"Speculation has been rife over the last few months that leading publishers could engage in a series of ownership transfers to consolidate their operations in more geographically coherent locations."
But Pelosi told MP:"When you are swapping titles in contiguous areas, the opportunity for cost reductions is limited.
"The only opportunity for serious cost reduction is when you have two or more titles in one market and they are fighting it out.
"It may make sense for there to be only one title serving that market, but that goes against all that the Office of Fair Trading stands for. It is very difficult to tell how this is going to pan out."
Newspaper Society director David Newell also told the committee that newspaper groups "would like to be able to have discussions about the possibility of title-swapping and rationalisation," but it was not entirely clear how the OFT and other regulatory bodies would respond.
"It will take one company to test it and then we will know," Newell said.