PUBLISHING entrepreneur Chris Bullivant says he will complain to the Office of Fair Trading after announcing he will close two weekly newspapers.
Chris Bullivant says he fears “there is no future for independent publishing in the UK” after deciding to close The Birmingham Press and The Birmingham Free Press, admitting he cannot compete with ad rates he claims are being offered to estate agents by the Birmingham Mail.
In a lengthy statement issued by Mr Bullivant, he said: “A meeting was held between representatives of (Mail owners) BPM Media and the estate agents of Birmingham.
“The agents were offered an advertising package consisting of a page appearing in the Birmingham Mail and a page appearing in the Mail Extra, a total of 130,000 copies per week, full colour, for the sum of £250.
“The duration of this offer was until December 2011. I was approached by a number of the Birmingham estate agents and asked if I could compete with the BPM Media price.
“I had to say that I could not and I had to start the withdrawal of my newspapers from Birmingham as a result.
“I am complaining about the BPM Media pricing structure to the Office of Fair Trading, but if BPM Media prove to be right in their pricing, I fear there is no future for independent publishing in the UK.”
Paid-for weekly the Birmingham Post, also owned by BPM Media, launched its owned freesheet called Birmingham Post Lite in that same April week.
A spokesman for BPM Media’s parent company Trinity Mirror last month denied the company engaged in anti-competitive practices. The company has declined to make any comment on this latest development.
