Difficult times, it seems, for Sir Anthony O'Reilly's international calling card, the London Independent. Figures from AC Nielsen, quoted this week by Independent's broker, Davy, shows that the Indie's ad revenue in October was down 21 per cent.

That's a pretty startling figure, especially for a paper that is struggling to move into profit. But compared to the Telegraph (down 27 per cent), the Guardian (down 30 per cent) and the Financial Times (down 42 per cent), it's a pretty creditable performance.

And the prognosis for the future is not great either, with the Advertisers Association in Britain forecasting a net fall in advertising revenue this year of almost 3 per cent, with the market only rising 1.8 per cent next year.

There is better news on the circulation front for the Indie, with Merrill Lynch this week reporting that the title was one of only three quality dailies to increase circulation year-on- year to August. Unfortunately, however, the Indie - like the other broadsheets - gets a higher proportion of its revenues from advertising.

Independent News & Media has shown that it's determined to stick with the Indie, but it's a pretty expensive calling card, even for Sir Anthony O'Reilly.

Incidentally, Merrill Lynch's latest media handbook shows that the Independent's £295 million sterling takeover of the Belfast Telegraph last year was the most expensive of any newspaper takeover in Britain since 1997 - at least in terms of multiples of sales. However, when multiples of earnings are used, the BelTel price tag is a lot more reasonable - 14.3 times earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), compared to the 22 times EBIT Richard Desmond paid for the Express and the 16 times EBIT Trinity Mirror paid for Southnews last year.