Out With A Bang

I suspect that in the ever-lengthening rap sheet we can lay at the door of ‘Fred The Shred’ and his fellow clowns at the Royal Bank of Scotland, this particular piece of news will get lost – after all, it’s not billions we’re talking here.

Just hundreds of millions. Of our money. Going down the proverbial toilet…

http://recoveringjournalist.typepad.com/recovering_journalist/2009/02/the-philadelphia-storys-latest-chapter-11.html

Because the story of some sweet-talking Philadelphia-Irish charmer called Brian P Tierney and the men from RBS is a subject that’s been dear to our hearts for a while now…

http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=142

And then again…

http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=161

Because someone, somewhere needs to be ‘outed’ as the person who – as late as May, 2006 – was convinced that buying a news operation that distributed its wares off the back of a bicycle was the way to go at the start of the 21st Century.

Presumeably – given that you strongly suspect that RBS’ hands are also all over Johnston Press’ acquisition of The Scotsman et al – we could be talking about the same person; two, big calls…

They were, after all, listed as JP’s ‘principal’ bankers in their 2007 Annual Report, according to my pal Pete…

http://blogs.pressgazette.co.uk/mediamoney/2008/11/26/anyone-up-for-nationalizing-johnston-press/

I’m not exactly sure what qualifies as a ‘toxic’ debt; whether that term is actually applicable to newspapers.

If it’s not, it should be.

Cos courtesy of RBS, you, me and every other UK tax-payer is up to our necks in it newspaper-wise.

Quite how Mr Tierney talks his way out of this one will be interesting to see; in the same way he talked RBS into it in the first place, one suspects.

But, anyway, three more cheers for everyone at RBS; well done, very well done.

Now all we can do is sit back and see how long it takes for JP to follow Philly Media’s lead; their demise merely hastened by the men who clearly liked to say ‘Yes’ to any passing chancer.

[Update: Read Mark's piece again and these two lines deserve a wider airing: 'the combination of enormous acquisition debt, the declining state of the newspaper business and the struggling economy was a lethal recipe for local owners.

'Tierney's a smart guy, but he and his partners may have been, shall we say, a bit too optimistic and idealistic about what they were getting into when they purchased the papers two years ago...'

A lesson for one or two others, perhaps?]