The Observer
- Premier League officials will travel to Brussels this week for a series of meetings with European Commission officials investigating the league's £1bn three-year deal with Sky TV. Read more on thePublican.com.
The British Medical Association is calling for smokers to be priced out of the habit. Doctors want to see the price of a packet rise to £5, equating to 25p a cigarette. Read more on thePublican.com.
The Sunday Telegraph
- Graydon Carter, the US editor of Vanity Fair, has slammed anti-smoking tactics in New York. On a recent raid to Vanity Fair's Times Square offices inspectors from the city's health department confiscated an unused ashtray and fined publisher Conde Nast $200 (£120).
BBC business editor and Telegraph columnist Jeff Randell says of the recent Diageo-pure malt row: "Cut through the Scotch Mist and you'll see that Diageo is paying a small price for a big, and very lucrative, expansion of Cardhu. Once a single malt, it will now be known as a pure malt. No name change; no blend change."
Gordon Brown will this week announce the biggest shake-up since 1997 in the way interest rates are set by forcing the Bank of England to adopt a two per cent target for inflation based on a new measure.
The Sunday Times
- This week The Sunday Times publishes its annual Fast Track 100 Index, a list of Britain's fast-growing companies. Vodka Kick maker GBL International is listed at no.3, Loch Fyne Restaurants is no.10, Scottish pub group Saltire Taverns is no.11 and restaurateur Carluccio's is no.16. Read more on thePublican.com.
Center Parcs, the holiday camp group floating on AIM this week, plans to target seaside locations and smaller sites in its hunt for a new park in Britain. The company hopes it can increase sales by up to 10% each year and wants to use new formats that have been successful on the Continent to do this.
The Mail on Sunday
- Blavod Black Vodka, has bought its US rival Extreme Beverage Company. Blavod is hoping to raise £8m from investors in a share placing to fund the deal. Read more on thePublican.com.
The Sunday Express
- The Express offers a for-and-against argument over calls for a smoking ban. Staff writer Julia Hartlet-Brewer says a ban would save 110,000 smokers' lives every year and 5,000 lives from passive smoking. While Michael Knapp says we should not follow the quasi-fascist regime of America: "In New York smokers are now less acceptable than coke-heads and gangsters."
Investment Bank Lazard will acquire Panmure UK, the stockbroking business of WestLB, for £50m. Panmure has a dedicated leisure research team and analysts include Douglas Jack and Stuart Price.
Debt worries and credit card bills could turn Britain's Christmas shopping spree into a New Year damp squib, analysts have warned.
Scotland on Sunday
- Belhaven's pub estate continues to grow. Last week the Dunbar brewer picked up half a dozen more hostelries including the Scotia Bar, reputedly Glasgow's oldest pub.
The Independent on Sunday
- US hotel giant Marriott International and a former Le Meridien director will take over six Le Meridien hotels, including Grosvenor House, after striking a deal with their owned Royal Bank of Scotland.
Leisure companies reporting financial results this week include Greene King on Tuesday and Hardys and Hansons on Wednesday.
Many of Brit-art's biggest players, such as Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, donated original work for an auction to save the Colony Room Club, a Soho drinking den favoured by artists and writers.
Organic salmon is set to rise in price and become even more of a luxury because of a tightening of regulations amid fears that organic fish farms cause ecological damage.
The Presidential Suite at the Mandarin Oriental now claims to be New York's most expensive hotel room. It offers dining and living rooms, baby grand piano, bar, office and two-person steam shower - and all for only $12,595 a night. But this is a bargain compared to the wrold's costliest suite: the 10-room Bridge Suite, Atlantis Resort, Bahamas, with private cinema, butler and chauffeured Rolls Royce for $25,000 a night.