Thomson ponders sale of ‘Times’ as talks fail

Press, 21 April 1979, Page 9

Thomson ponders sale of ‘Times’ as talks fail

NZPA London Britain’s most famous newspaper, “The Times,” which has not been published for more than four months, may be sold or printed abroad, it was reported in London. These two options were now being “actively considered” for the first time by the paper’s Canadian owners, said a report from Toronto in the “Daily Mail.”

This followed the latest failure of talks in London between “The Times’” man-i agement and the National Graphical Association, one of the key print unions involved in the dispute. A senior official of Thom-

son Newspaper’s was quoted as saying: “We now have to examine closely our remaining options which must include printing the paper elsewhere, selling it and the other titles, or backing down to the union demands. “Since this is a matter of principle for the future of the whole of Fleet Street we can hardly back down. So if there is no progress made in the very near future selling becomes a real possibility — though a terrible tragedy. And of course we have had offers.”

The “Daily Mail” report said another plan being considered by the Thomson

board in Canada and by Times executives in. London, was to have the paper printed each night on presses in Germany or France, air freighted to London, and distributed throughout Britain by non-union labour. On Thursday, N.G.A. leaders rejected a management offer that the dispute be put before the Government’s mediation service in an attempt to resolve it. The N.G.A. president (Mr Les Dixon), echoing the Thomson executive, said the question of new technology was “one of principle and we cannot see how it is possible to arbitrate over a principle.”