News International lines up new HQ

chris

Wapping: has been News International's home for 22 years.



News International hopes to have the sale of its Wapping site and the purchase of a new headquarters - which could house Dow Jones staff - finalised within two months.

Clive Milner, the News International group managing director, said a shortlist of buyers for Wapping, the company's home for 22 years, is set to be drawn up in April with the sale decided in two months.
"We have had a high level of interest and we think we will in the next month be able to say who the last three in terms of a sale are and we will also have a real view as to what that site will be used for - whether it will be commercial or residential or a mix,"


Sales documentation on the Wapping site has been in the market for more than a month and Milner said that the sprawling complex, which contains News International corporate offices, five newspapers and its printing plant, had attracted a lot of interest.

NI could sell the Wapping site in its entirety or to separate buyers, according to Milner.

The site houses the Sun, News of the World, the Times, Sunday Times and the London Paper and has planning permission to build a tower on its car park.

A falling commercial property market was one reason that the purchase of a new London site for NI headquarters had been delayed.

After James Murdoch was appointed as the head of the newly-created division News Corporation Europe and Asia in December, taking over Les Hinton's role as executive chairman at News International, some staff believe that the replacement London base will also be a regional headquarters for News Corporation Europe and Asia.

Staff also believe the new headquarters will be larger than previously planned and encompass the London staff of Dow Jones, the New York-based Wall Street Journal publisher that News Corporation bought in December.

"These are possibilities but no decision has been taken about the shape of our new headquarters in terms of the shape of its components," Milner said.

"One route to go down is for News International to go alone. The other is to go with others and Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal would be obvious additions."

"Now we have got about three or four targeted buildings that we are still in detailed discussions with."

Locations in Canary Wharf and Waterloo have been canvassed and Paddington has been rumoured. Recently it has been suggested that the Waterloo site would be too small to house Dow Jones staff.

Milner said both the decision on how to proceed with the disposal of the Wapping site and where NI's new HQ will be should be completed in two months.

"It's pretty tight because we want to get on with it because the sale is one consideration and the hunt for a new building is another," he added.

The need to move will receive new impetus next month when the Wapping presses fall silent, as the company's new £350m printing plant at Broxbourne, the world's largest, comes fully online.

Staff at News International were told in December not to expect to move from Wapping to a new London headquarters until late 2010.

London-based staff at Dow Jones, which includes employees working for the Wall Street Journal newspaper and Financial News magazine, have been sent emails requesting details about their requirements.

In New York, Journal staff have already moved into the News Corporation headquarters.

If all the News Corporation staff in London are housed in a single headquarters, it would see up to nine companies and subsidiaries in 14 locations merge.