However, these are not as stringent as the ones for magazines, leading to claims that the market will become distorted.Sylvia Auton, the chief executive of IPC, publisher of Marie Claire, NME and Nuts, said: “The OFT is guilty of not fully understanding the impact of distribution. Magazine publishers fear this will make it uneconomic to deliver some magazines to newsagents in remote parts of the country.The OFT also introduced new rules for newspaper distribution. The reform will “undermine the secure route to market that newspapers and magazines currently enjoy”.The OFT said last month that newsagents and supermarkets could sign contracts with any wholesaler they liked, breaking the existing practice of territorial distribution. Mr Eddington refused to be drawn on numbers, but he said: “The process of talking to the workforce and the unions is already under way.”. Britain’s magazine publishers have warned the Government that proposals to shake up news distribution threaten the country’s free press. While BA is the world’s most profitable airline, the two men will focus on ways to cut £300m out of the company’s cost base by 2007.Since August 2001 BA has cut 13,000 jobs, and it is now expected to make further redundancies. “I hope there will be a sensible resolution this year or next,” said Mr Eddington.His successor, Mr Walsh, the former boss of Aer Lingus, will join as chief executive designate on 3 May.

Mr Eddington said that he saw no benefits in doing a similar deal with Iberia.With the US presidential elections out of the way and new blood in the European Commission, there is renewed optimism that a deal can be brokered on opening up the airline market. But it would be wrong to take the view that [a merger] will happen on my watch.”The current international airline rules prevent carriers changing their nationalities. With these restrictions in place, BA would be unable to buy more than 50 per cent of Iberia and merge routes as it would in effect become a British company.In September 2003 Air France and KLM tied up, but the two airlines are still run as entirely separate businesses, so they don’t break the rules. They are expected to rebut the paper’s claim that magazine publishing – which sits within Worldwide – does not represent value for money.. British Airways chief executive Rod Eddington has raised the prospect of a full-blown merger with Iberia sometime next year. The new scheme will reward management for hitting profit targets.As part of the commercial review, the BBC is also selling BBC Broadcast, the “play-out” business that runs the broadcast transmissions. Friday was the deadline for initial expressions of interest for the business, which could fetch £100m.Private equity groups Carlyle Group and Macquarie, as well as media groups Liberty Media and Thomson are among those to lodge expressions of interest.

The second round of bidding will take place in mid April, when selected bidders will receive information on the business.BBC chairman Michael Grade and Mr Thompson also will appear before the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee this week to discuss the Government’s Green Paper on the future of the BBC. The BBC’s director-general, Mark Thompson, scrapped plans to sell the division at the end of last year after an internal review of the corporation’s commercial operations. Instead, he wanted it to double profits in the next two years.Worldwide now plans to introduce a new remuneration scheme for executives and senior staff to help it achieve its profit target. Until now, the division had been told to focus on maximising cashflow to the corporation via its own activities and joint ventures.

The BBC is expected to announce soon that its operating officer and former finance director, John Smith, is the new chief executive of the corporation’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide. If they have made their decision about producing a new car at Ryton, Peugeot will do it with the grant or not.”Also at the Geneva motor show last month, Peugeot unveiled three new cars developed as part of its joint venture with Japanese car maker Toyota: the Toyota Aygo, the Citro?C1 and the Peugeot 107.The three compact models will be jointly produced at the Kolin production site in the Czech Republic.. She could not say how long the second application was likely to take.Unions had also been expecting that the £14.4m grant could still be used, but were upbeat about the prospects of the Ryton plant. An Amicus union representative for the plant who will meet management this week to discuss its future said: “Not getting the grant would not alter their plans Peugeot is a massive company. Grants are made for specific projects.” She added that Peugeot would have to start the whole process again if it wished to make a new application.