CN Group joins Trinity Mirror, Press Association and Ten Alps consortium in bid for English IFNC

The independently run media business publishes newspapers in Cumbria, Northumberland and Scotland.

Robin Burgess, Chief Executive of CN Group, said: "We are delighted to be joining Trinity Mirror, the Press Association and Ten Alps in tendering for the Tyne Tees and Border ITV regional news franchise.

"We have been serving the people of Cumbria with local news, information and entertainment for over 194 years and we look forward to continuing this by contributing to a revitalised local news programme.

"Having been directly involved with Border Television from its foundation until it was sold to Granada we hope that our unique position will help ensure the consortium is chosen to serve the area for this pilot."

Neil Benson, spokesman for the consortium, said: "We are delighted that CN Group has joined our consortium.

"Their unrivalled knowledge and coverage of Cumbria will be crucially important in ensuring that we provide an outstanding local service for that part of the region.

"CN Group adds considerable weight to our proposition and we are absolutely convinced we have the ideal blueprint for the English TV news pilot."

The group is still in discussions with a number of organisations and will announce further partnerships in early 2010.