Peoria Pundit

News and Media from River City

Media: It’s all skittles and beer for the newspaper business

Posted in On the Media with tags , , on December 5, 2008 by Billy Dennis

First, we have one of the best newspapers in the country trying to sell itself:

The McClatchy Company, burdened by debt and a steep slide in newspaper advertising, wants to sell one of its most-prized properties, The Miami Herald, according to people briefed on the company’s plans.

McClatchy, the nation’s third-largest newspaper chain, has approached potential buyers for The Herald, said these people, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue. But they said they knew of no serious offers for the paper, reflecting the evaporation of major investors’ interest in buying newspapers.
And since this article appeared in the New York Times, I’m gonna take a wild leap and conclude that one potential buyer was the NYT company.
Second, we have another newspaper putting itself up for sale:

Last month the Rocky Mountain News’ managing editor swept through the newsroom to assure employees that no layoffs were planned.

So the word shock is probably an understatement to describe the mood in the newsroom Thursday, when the Rocky’s owner announced that it was putting the newspaper up for sale.

As a Peoria Pundit commenter notes, the M.E. in the first paragraph is former Journal Star business writer Deb Goeken.

Last year, all this could be blamed on the fact that fewer and fewer people want to buy ads in newspapers. Now, this damn recession has come along, letting these companies blame their woes on something other than the fact that their business model is based on holding local monopolies on an increasingly irrelevant technology: The printing press.

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