COMING to terms with the sale of the Evening Standard was as difficult as dealing with his parents’ death, Lord Rothermere has said.

The Daily Mail and General Trust chairman, who is selling the loss-making London paper for a nominal £1 to former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev, said the sale of more titles was unlikely, but not impossible.

“I am very emotionally attached to the Standard,” said Rothermere, breaking his silence on the disposal, which still needs approval from business secretary Lord Mandelson. “Along with the death of my parents, [selling] it has been one of the hardest things to live through in my life.”

DMGT began seeking a buyer a year ago when it tired of the Standard’s £10m-a-year losses. Rothermere paid tribute to Lebedev, who part-owns the campaigning Novaya Gazeta newspaper in Moscow.

“He is a brave owner to do what he does in Russia, standing up to the government at great personal risk to himself and financial risk to his business. He really believes in democracy,” said Rothermere.

On future deals, he added: “Newspapers are out of fashion, but I believe their epitaph has been written way too early. It is our duty to look at any offer on all of our businesses, but I can’t see a circumstance where we would sell another newspaper unless there was a strategic imperative.”

He also ruled out acquiring The Independent, which is shortly moving into the Daily Mail’s Kensington headquarters to save money for its owner, Sir Anthony O’Reilly.

DMGT is one of four leading regional publishers through Northcliffe, which owns titles such as the Leicester Mercury. Rothermere welcomed the review of local media-ownership rules instigated by communications minister Lord Carter, which will be carried out by Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading. He thinks pension rules need to be overhauled before mergers can take place.

“Right now, it is hard to see how the industry has got the capacity to consolidate, with both the regulatory framework and in terms of issues revolving round some of the other players,” he said. “No-one with a final-salary scheme is going to find the circumstances right because they don’t want to crystallise their liabilities,” he said. “That issue has to be ironed out.”

Section 75 of the Pensions Act, which stops companies walking away from their liabilities, is being reviewed by the Pensions Regulator because employers argue it impedes restructuring. DMGT’s newspaper pension fund has a £40m deficit. Some of its rivals, such as Trinity Mirror, have a greater burden.

Attempts to sell Northcliffe three years ago were abandoned when offers came in below the £1.3 billion asking price. Pension trustees were also expected to have asked for a one-off injection into the pension fund, making a sale even less attractive.

DMGT, which also owns information businesses, conferences and Australian radio stations, said last week that sales in the first quarter rose 2% to £568m, helped by the strong dollar. However, UK advertising revenues at Northcliffe remained weak, down 27%, with a steeper decline of 40% in January.

Rothermere took the chairman’s role at DMGT 11 years ago, on the death of his father, the third Viscount Rothermere, who acquired the Standard in 1987.

Lebedev, who is buying 75.1% of the Standard, is spending £25m to bolster the title, but jobs are expected to go. He has warned he could close the Standard in three years if his turnround is not a success.

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