"I don't think morale is a problem with us," Stephen Rae, editor of the Irish Independent, told a media conference recently, citing the youth and enthusiasm of his journalistic team. So reassured, One More Thing was looking forward to discovering how another Independent News and Media cohort – its shareholders – were faring on the morale front.

Sadly, INM’s agm, provisionally pencilled in for today but never formally announced to the stock exchange, has been put back to September 5th. INM’s tense agms usually take place in June, but the date has been pushed into autumn this year because it doesn’t make sense to hold the agm before the recently announced emergency general meeting.

That egm, scheduled for June 17th, will see shareholders vote on the proposed disposal of the South Africa operations as well as "a number of share capital and other related resolutions necessary for the implementation of the other steps of the restructuring".

In other words, it’s a spot of debt-housekeeping that is expected to result in straightforward approvals. Whether shareholders will manage to inject a hint of drama remains to be seen. Given the value of INM’s stock has been obliterated by almost 90 per cent over the past year, they may have one or two things to get off their chests.