United News & Media to rename

United News & Media is likely to appoint an outside design consultancy following the decision by the plc to change its name to United Business Media, pending shareholder approval.

Nigel Main, head of communications, says that despite the presence of a number of companies with design links within the organisation, United would “probably” take design work out-of-house, though it “hadn’t decided”.

The decision to rename, which will be put to shareholders at the AGM later this month, reflects the company’s new focus on business-to-business publishing, following the disposal of its TV assets.

“We have done £3bn worth of transactions this year in refocusing our business portfolio. We’ve slimmed down into three or four main businesses and lots of our profits are coming out of the US. The name change reflects that,” explains Main.

Main gives no indication of whether the plc still intends to sell off Express Newspapers, though the name change and the change of focus towards business-to-business titles suggests an intention to do just that, as bidding for the newspapers from interested parties continues.

Express Newspapers is valued at around £100m.