Lord Hartwell

[James]

How did Lord Hartwell lose his newspaper empire?

[jeff]

By embarking on a crash course of modernisation in the early 80s, which involved committing the then family owned business to spending �140million, mainly on huge new printing plants in London and Manchester, without securing the money in advance. The idea of floating the company was dismissed almost out of hand. Squeezed by a combination of greedy printers and angry bankers, and poorly advised by senior management, he had to accept a �10million input from Conrad Black, a Canadian -born newspaper owner. But it wasn't enough and Black seized the opportunity to gain complete control.