AAP

Radio, Print, and Online Print and Online
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I wonder who will be interested in buying AAP? Bloomberg? Nikkei (which owns Financial Times)?

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The Australian story claims those interested could be from “wealthy private family interests”. Presumably rich enough to sustain losses while they attempt to make it profitable, I guess?

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According to The Australian, Roy Morgan Research executive chairman Gary Morgan has revealed himself as a potential buyer of AAP. The paper says Private Media owner Eric Beecher is also interested.

EDIT 30/3: talent manager Glenn Wheatley has also shown an interest in buying AAP.

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This can only end well

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Potentially three bids, it’s promising. Hopefully the business can be preserved to operate in a sustainable manner, retaining most of the experience of the staff.

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Agreed. Let’s hope for the best. :slight_smile:

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The AAP board will meet today to decide whether to proceed with the sale of the newswire business or close it, as tweeted by Kaitlyn Offer last night. Kaitlyn is chief of staff at AAP’s Melbourne bureau.

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Update:

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The chair of the competition and consumer watchdog, Rod Sims, says any attempt by News Corp and Nine to block a potential sale of Australian Associated Press would “raise concerns” related to federal competition law.

Sims told the Guardian the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission would welcome the continuation of AAP “in some form”. He said ACCC did not support an individual bid, but that it would be problematic if any of AAP’s shareholders decided to shut the news service if a viable offer was on the table.

“If there is a bidder we’ll be watching to ensure there were no inappropriate impediments to sale,” Sims said.

“AAP’s continuation is really important for media diversity and also competition. It’s clear to me that media startups and smaller media that want to get bigger, they do depend on AAP.

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Thanks @TV.Cynic, let’s hope the ACCC is more effective at this matter than they are in reducing extortionate fuel prices.

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Given the ACCC’s failure on the TPG/Vodafone merger, I dont know how much faith you can put in anything that ACCC says anymore.

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The consortium is seeking to acquire the newswire service, the fact-check unit and photography as the core focus of its bid. It is also open to acquiring the directories service, MediaNet press release service, and analytics business MediaVerse.

It does not want to acquire production and subediting business Pagemasters, the racing and form news or custom editorial divisions.

“AAP 2.0” would be run as a not-for-profit business and led by the existing core management team with new appointments made by the consortium.

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Exactly. I never have. They bungle most things.

Thanks @JohnsonTV for the positive news of a NFP consortium buy, sticking to the core is much better with those who know it best currently, retaining the IC of current staff.

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Final offers for the AAP business went in on Wednesday night and it’s believed there’s different bidders for different parts of the business.

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