Mmmmm, interesting this. You know how PR man Matthew Freud is planning on selling the Press Gazette because no one will come to his awards party (or something like that)? Well, with five different owners in just over ten years all struggling to make a success of the newspaper industry's weekly trade mag, a new proposal is going round that would put ownership of the title into a Trust, that would be overseen my the wider newspaper industry.
Such a proposal would, in theory, ensure the title was independent from any one proprietor's personal agenda (some say the reason some key newspaper groups were refusing to participate in the Press Gazette's awards is because they don't like Freud, a PR man, owning and influencing the title). The mag would still need to be a profitable venture, but it would ultimately be answerable to a board made up of representatives from across the industry, rather than any one proprietor. In order to get the operation off the ground founding trustees (or their companies) would each be expected to put a "modest" sum of money into the pot to fund year one operations, in return for discounted access to Press Gazette services.
Forty of the biggest newspaper orgnaisations are apparently being approached with this idea in the hope enough of them will sign up to be cash giving founding trustees. Current owners Matthew Freud and Piers Morgan both seemingly support the proposal, though it's not clear what they'd want out of it to compensate for their investment to date in the title.