Production jobs in the North are safe following domestic redundancies among editorial staff at the co-parent of All3Media, International Media Investments (IMI), the company has confirmed to Prolific North.
IMI, owned by Manchester City owner and UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is one half, and according to the NYT the 75% financier of joint venture Redbird IMI, which in May 2024 completed a £1.15m takeover of UK production giant All3Media, the parent of Northern labels including Liverpool-based Hollyoaks producer Lime Pictures and Leeds doc specialist Wise Owl Films (When X Came to Britain).
Redbird IMI was also in the takeover race for The Telegraph and Spectator titles, until the UK Government stepped in over concerns about foreign government ownership of UK news media.
ITV is also currently reported to be in “early-stage talks” with RedBird IMI about merging their production businesses.
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Since the takeover, Lime Pictures has closed its London office, with a spokesman confirming “proposed redundancies” to Prolific North last September.
Now IMI has made a number of redundancies at its flagship English-language newspaper in the UAE, The National.
The company confirmed 28 editorial layoffs at the title, believed to be around 25% of editorial staff, to Semafor Gulf on January 31. The cuts included employees on the multimedia, digital, lifestyle and foreign desks, according to insiders, with the news delivered in a company-wide editorial meeting.
IMI said in a statement: “As part of a comprehensive strategic review aimed at optimizing our operations, we have made the decision to restructure our organization…IMI’s future strategy includes strengthening our content creation capabilities and investing in new media and technologies.”
Prolific North contacted IMI to enquire whether this “strategic review” might be expected to extend to the firm’s recent UK acquisitions, in particular those in the North such as Lime and Wise Owl, and was told in a brief, but seemingly unequivocal statement: “This doesn’t impact them.”
The National was first published in 2008, and since then has gone through several iterations as the go-to English-language news source in the UAE, and employed dozens of regional and international journalists (including the author of this article), including those from high-profile titles in the UK, Canada and the wider English-speaking world.
IMI acquired The National from state-backed Abu Dhabi Media in 2016. Regionally, the company also owns Sky News Arabia, CNN Business Arabic, and a minority stake in Euronews.
