News that regional publisher Johnston Press was to launch into the mini-cab business was never going to pass unnoticed.
Bosses at the group, which publishes some of the North’s best-known newspapers including the Yorkshire Post and Lancashire Evening Post, have just been forced to back down on proposals to reduce mileage rates to staff to just 25p from the HMRC standard rate of 45p.
So when this morning it was reported that a partnership with a cabs service which has featured on the television programme Dragon’s Den will allow users of the company’s events and listings website WOW247 to book taxis online through minicabit…….well, it was only a matter of time.
Steven Thomas, general manager for WOW247, said: “Minicabit is the latest example of how Johnston Press are enriching WOW247’s local and national event offerings with relevant, innovative services across web and mobile.”
The Guardian’s media blogger Roy Greenslade posted this morning: “The publisher is not, of course, expecting its journalists to use the taxi service for work assignments. Cabbies tend to charge much more than 45p a mile.”
