Media: New breed of press baron

IF CHRIS Oakley, chief executive of Regional Independent Media takes control of Mirror Group following his pounds 900m bid for the company yesterday, it will be a return to "Sensible Labour" for the one-time editor of the Liverpool Echo.

Oakley made his name by supporting Neil Kinnock in his Eighties battle against Labour's hard left. He took on Derek Hatton, the popular - but Militant - deputy leader of Liverpool City Council.

If he takes control of the Mirror he may find himself supporting another generation of Labour modernisers. His record makes him seem like a businessman after their own heart.

RIM is the new name for the old United Provincial Newspapers in the north of England, whose star title is the Yorkshire Post. Oakley, 57, joined in March last year to oversee the purchase of the titles for the venture capital group, Candover - the money men behind yesterday's bid.

In October, the National Union of Journalists received a leaked memo from Oakley promising to cut 350 jobs at RIM to meet the Candover business plan. Oakley at first denied existence of the memos, but jobs cuts across the group were announced just a month later.

Oakley is part of a new breed of regional press baron. Along with Johnson Press and Trinity - which had its bid for Mirror Group falter last week because of disagreement about Montgomery's role - RIM is a dedicated regional group which through cost-cutting and focusing on the regional press have turned around what was a dying business.

Oakley had a reputation as a campaigning journalist on Merseyside. He joined the Echo as editor in 1983 and stayed for six years, covering the turbulent days of Derek Hatton. His Echo took on The Sun when it made up stories about Liverpool fans' behaviour at the Hillsborough tragedy.

Even as a journalist he has always been a man aware of his worth. He insisted at the Echo that his company car be a Porche - probably the flashiest car in any regional newspaper car park at the time.

Before the Echo he spent three years editing the Lancashire Evening Post. He had worked as a journalist since leaving school and joining the Kent Sussex Courier.

In 1989 he led a team of senior people from the Echo to The Birmingham Post and Mail Group, where he became editor-in-chief and deputy managing director. Within two years he had led a management buy-out of what were then ailing Birmingham titles owned by Ralph Ingersoll. Oakley spent two years cutting jobs and buying up local Midlands papers to help merge costs, before floating as Midland Independent Newspapers in 1994 and becoming chief executive. In 1988 Ralph Ingersoll had bought the Birmingham papers for pounds 62m. By the time Oakley floated his group in 1994, it was worth pounds 200m and Oakley was a paper millionaire.

Oakley expanded MIN into local cable TV through a joint venture with Mirror Group's L!ve TV. This led him into sales talks with David Montgomery. In November 1997, MIN was sold to Mirror Group for pounds 297m - a price thought high by the City at the time.

Oakley became richer after the Mirror deal and then became managing director of Mirror Group's regional titles until the lure of another deal led him to RIM and Candover.

Just 10 months after securing the RIM take-over, Oakley is again looking for the excitement of a major deal. If he succeeds - where Trinity and Germany's Axel Springer Group have failed - he will create the UK's largest print media company.

The alternative scenario may not see Oakley in charge of The Mirror at all. Candover, whom Oakley now represents, wanted to buy Mirror Group's Scottish titles from Springer last year, if its take-over had succeeded. It may still be that Oakley and Candover just want to keep within their area of expertise and will sell Mirror Group's national titles to someone else. So far the Barclay brothers are being seen as the likeliest purchasers.

Whatever happens, Chris Oakley has secured a place for himself as the newspaper business's most prolific deal-maker.