Tony O’Reilly’s Independent problem

These are not the happiest of times for staff at the Independent and Independent on Sunday. And they are likely to be sunk further into gloom by today's news that Waterford Wedgwood, the 250-year-old china and glassware maker, has gone into liquidation. Why? Because Tony O'Reilly (pictured), the chief executive of Independent News & Media (INM), the company that owns the papers, is also the non-executive chairman of the company, and it is claimed he has lost millions as a result of its collapse.

"We thought that things couldn't get worse, but they just have," a source at the Independent told The First Post. And bad they are. As reported here, the Independent’s new editor Roger Alton announced in November that 90 jobs – 60 of them editorial positions – were to be shed. The two titles reportedly lose around £12m a year and the Independent is the lowest selling national daily in Britain, with some media commentators believing its circulation has fallen to below 200,000 copies a day. A hike in the cover price in October, from 80 pence to £1, did not help matters.

Ideally INM would like to offload the two titles. Zac Goldsmith, the prospective Tory MP and son of the late financier Sir James Goldsmith, showed some passing interest last year, but this came to nothing. Another escape clause could be a purchase by Associated Newspapers, who own the Daily Mail. Although the papers are from widely different ends of the political spectrum, it would be a convenient solution because the Independent is moving its operations to Associated's Kensington headquarters later this year in a bid to cut costs.

O’Reilly has already allegedly turned down an offer of £1 from Associated for both the papers, but given his losses through Waterford Wedgwood and the fact that INM is said to have as much as £1bn of debt, that offer might seem a little more attractive now.