Sly Bailey looked as though she might bite the bullet and sell the Daily Mirror a year ago, when she unveiled a “review of strategy”. Regardless of whether you think it is a good idea to sell the Mirror, once you get the City salivating about a possible sale or demerger it helps if you can meet those expectations.

Yet, 14 sorry months later, only the Racing Post – Trinity Mirror’s best title in many ways – and a few southern newspapers have been sold, for a measly price.

In the spring, NM Rothschild, Trinity Mirror’s bankers, were telling bidders to offer at least £200 million if they wanted to get into to the second round; the final selling price, though, was £170 million.

The struggling Birmingham Post & Mail titles couldn’t be sold, because the £150 million or so on the table was far too low. So the Trinity Mirror boss was left doing something she promised not to do in the wake of Lord Rothermere’s Northcliffe debacle: owning a title that, until the day before yesterday, she had made it clear she did not want.

As Trinity Mirror and Daily Mail and General Trust have now tested to destruction – trophy assets, such as The Daily Telegraph, aside – nobody thinks newspapers are worth much.

Ms Bailey, surprisingly, seems still to be in investors’ good books, despite the dismal outcome. Yet Trinity Mirror shares, 468p after the announcement of the review, and 472p after the announcement of plans to sell the Racing Post, are 415p at the time of writing.

Sure, all media companies have struggled of late, but if you take a pound and hand over 89p a year later – efffectively what has happened to Trinity’s share price – it is hardly a compelling deal.

Selling in dribs and drabs is not a strategy, and Emap, which is also conducting a “strategic review”, will have to offload everything it owns to avoid a similar fate.

For Ms Bailey, though, there ought to be greater attention to operational detail – why, for example, was it difficult to find good online coverage at midnight yesterday of Wednesday’s Champions League games at mirror.co.uk?

There also needs to be a clearer plan. Trinity Mirror did take a look at the Emap books, say insiders, and then walked away, showing a lack of clarity as to what it is going to do next. One option is to run the whole operation for cash, let the Mirror wither away, and eventually sell it for half what might be achieved, even now. This might be called the Richard Desmond strategy.

It would be nice to hear something different, though – the real plan for Trinity Mirror, or any other consumer media company, should be about trying to engage with either mass or niche audiences. In the end it is readers, listeners or viewers who attract advertisers – in that respect newspapers, magazines, televison and radio are no different. But unless Ms Bailey makes a case for mass media, people are entitled to ask, what exactly is the point?

Radiohead is pulling off a great rock ‘n’ roll swindle. You can pay what you like for its new album, In Rainbows, online, but if you pay more than £2 or so, the band is probably making more money than if a record company and the retailer were taking their cut. There is a deluxe box set for £40, and a CD with the new tracks will be released via a record company next year. But remember when tracks from Kid A were given away via Napster? Did CD sales wilt? No, Radiohead’s first American No 1 followed.

Some say that this is a blow for the record industry, but without EMI, Radiohead would never have been big enough to get such coverage. EMI would have made money on its initial six-album deal and resigning the band was always going to cost more anyway. Radiohead is still under contract to a music publisher (the folks who collect songwriting royalties) with Warner/Chappell.

So really, it is clever marketing, and better still, fans feel they are being treated with respect. As Terra Firma contemplates whether new management is needed at EMI, there ought to be a job for Thom Yorke.

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