Cost-Cutting Newsquest/Gannett Goes on the Acquisition Trail

Newsquest, the US-owned regional newspaper group with more than 200 titles in the UK, has acquired 29 more by buying the Romanes Media group.

Romanes publishes one daily newspaper, the Greenock Telegraph in Scotland, plus 19 paid-for weeklies and nine weekly frees. Its portfolio includes several papers in Scotland, one major weekly in Northern Ireland - the Enniskillen-based Impartial Reporter - and a clutch of weeklies in Berkshire, such as the Reading Chronicle, Bracknell News and Slough Observer. It employs about 270 staff.