FeedMedia: GateHouse sells off two newspapers
August 28, 2008 in On the Media Tags: GateHouse Media, Peoria Journal Star
Via Editor & Publisher: The employee-owned Omaha World-Herald Co. bought two daily newspapers from GateHouse Media: The Grand Island Independent (20,500 circulation) and the York News-Times (4,700). GateHouse has owned the newspapers only since last fall when it bought 14 dailies from Morris Communication Co.
GateHouse owns the Peoria Journal Star, the Pekin Daily Times, the TimesNewspapers chain of weekly papers and many others in West Central Illinois. All these papers have faced reduction in staff as GateHouse moved to cut costs to help pay higher than normal dividends.
Mike Reed, Chief Executive Officer of GateHouse Media, commented in a statement, “While we are constantly evaluating investment opportunities in the local media sector and continue to have a very strong pipeline of future opportunities, we did not see the Grand Island operation as a good strategic or geographic fit and felt we could redeploy the capital more effectively elsewhere. I am delighted to announce the sale of these publications to the Omaha World-Herald Company which has a significant and venerable presence in Nebraska.”
GateHouse Media has been threatened with delisting from the New York Stock exchange if it doesn’t come up with a plan to get it’s stock price consistently above $1 per share. A respected analyst told me recently that if GateHouse ends up declaring bankruptcy, that purchase by a local philanthropist would be the Journal Star’s best option.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Who says the Pekin Daily Times has faced reductions? It is not true. Not a single newsroom position has been cut in many years. Not one. I think the last cut was made about … oh, six years ago? When one person left her position was not filled again. The PDT was never overstaffed in the first place, as so many others were.
August 29th, 2008 at 8:36 am
I have to call you on this one Bill.
There have been no staff reductions at Times Newspapers.
We were lean before GateHouse bought us.
And, as a personal aside, I like life under GateHouse.
They let us start our sports section.
They brought back columns.
They gave each paper a Web site.
They encouraged us to start blogs.
The benefits even improved.
They have made a considerable investment in technology here.
The morale around here is very high.
Gatehouse has been very good to Times Newspapers.
We are treated well.
August 29th, 2008 at 8:56 am
DeWayne,
Thanks for sharing the insiders perspective - always good to know there are two sides of an issue. Hope they make it through the current difficulties in a manner that enables them to continue strengthening your weekly.
August 29th, 2008 at 11:40 am
maybe in reducing their own bloat, from over-buying, Gatehouse can focus on being a good newspaper company? I actually like the changes made to the Times Observer, too, the website et al. It’s good stuff. PJS has a vastly improved website as well.
September 2nd, 2008 at 7:46 am
Dewayne
I work for a Gatehouse paper they bought two years ago.
NO raise since they bought it.
Benefits about the same.
They laid off 20 people when they bought us.
Left in place incompetent and harassing managers.
They’re JUST LIKE JRC
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:49 am
If GateHouse DID improve the morale and benefits at the Times-Observer, the previous management must have REALLY sucked.
I suspect as much because I did attempt to apply for a job there once (pre-Gatehouse), and was immediately turned off by a number of things, particularly their “no-compete” clause forbidding ANYONE who worked for them from working for ANY other newspaper within a 50-mile radius for 6 months after they quit. They actually attempted to enforce this clause (which is designed for high-profile print columnists, TV anchors, etc.) against people like barely-above-minimum-wage ad reps who quit to work for other area newspapers.