THE world's oldest English language daily newspaper, The Belfast News Letter, has been put up for sale.
Johnston Press, whose wide portfolio also includes the Ulster Star, Derry Journal, Mid-Ulster Mail and Ballymena Times has put the business on the market after a failure to secure a debt refinancing deal.
The business has £220m of borrowing due for repayment in June.
The announcement ends months of uncertainty over the future of the media group, which publishes The 'i', The Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post. Speculation that the publisher would be sold has been growing since it announced a strategic review in March 2017 to tackle its long-standing debt issues.
The company has said it is not currently in discussions with any potential buyers.
Bidders for the business could include activist shareholder Custos Group, which already owns more than 20 per cent of Johnston Press.
Custos Group, which is headed by Norwegian entrepreneur Christen Ager-Hanssen, reportedly said in August that it would be a prospective bidder for the business if it went into administration.
The latest development comes after Johnston Press reported a 10 per cent slump of £93m in revenues for the first half of the year.
The figures were heavily impacted by a sharp fall in advertising sales, with underlying revenues falling by 15 per cent and classified ad sales plunging 28.5 per cent year-on-year.
Digital advertising revenues - which have previously helped offset a decline in traditional ad sales - also fell, down 7.4 per cent, as the changes to Google's online search algorithm and Facebook's news feed took their toll.
Speaking in relation to the financial results, David King, chief executive of Johnston Press, said the group's problems were two-fold - namely, historical debts and pension funding issues, as well as "extremely difficult" industry conditions.
The News Letter has been owned by Johnston Press since 2005 and is the oldest English language general daily newspaper still in publication, having first been printed in 1737
