Newsonomics: 8 Questions As Michael Ferro Leaves The Stage ($100 million Richer)

Michael Ferro has left the room. Tronc announced Friday that Merrick Media, the Ferro-led, Chicago-based investment firm had sold its 25% stake in Tronc. The hometown Chicago Tribune tries to tell us more about Sargent McCormick, the buyer of Merrick’s stake. We do know of his interest in the ...

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Newsonomics: Is Tronc About To Go On The Market?

It almost sounds like a riddle: What’s a Tronc without the L.A. Times? As the Tronc sale of the Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune finalizes, now most likely in mid-April, the next question arises: What becomes of Tronc? Its eight remaining titles own an impressive history and still play ...

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Newsonomics: Michael Ferro’s Creeping Privatization of Tronc

On Thursday, Michael Ferro solidified his control of Tronc, the company he seized a more tentative kind of control of just 13 months ago, deposing then-Tribune Publishing CEO Jack Griffin in a quick coup de press. This week’s move looked financial, but too, speaks deeply to power and control. ...

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Newsonomics: Tribune’s Latest Lease on Life

Follow Newsonomics on Twitter @kdoctor Companion post: Newsonomics: Split ‘Ems — & Then There Was Gannett   First published at Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab “We’re getting toward the end of the finish line,” Jack Griffin tells me as he sits in a car whooshing to an ...

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The Newsonomics of the Print Orphanage — Tribune’s and Time Inc.’s

  Related posts: The Tribune’s Detour The Tribune’s Metro Agony Chicago Tribune’s Blue Sky Innovation     First published at Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab   Talk about spin. Two of America’s once-iconic publishers are about to be spun. Spun off, ...

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The Newsonomics of the Koch Brothers and the Sales of U.S.’ Top Metros

How did we get here? How did we get to a place where a half dozen of the top newspaper nameplates in America could fall into overtly political hands? What does it tell us about the reshaping of the U.S. daily landscape? How might the Koch brothers’ ownership fare, a lesson applied here that may ...

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The Newsonomics of 2013 Wizardry: Tribune, Buffett, Murdoch, Paton, Bloomberg, and more

Today, though, most of the reporting power, much of the brand power, and thepolitical power still resides in big companies and their leadership. We may well get our strongest display of that early in 2013: In Washington, the FCC cross-ownership debate may move to center stage in January. And ...

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The Newsonomics of Majority Reader Revenue

We’re about to move into a period in which reader revenue surpasses advertising revenue as the main support of many news(paper) companies. It’s yet another kind of profound crossover ("The Newsonomics of Crossover"), demonstrating again how quickly news business models are changing. With ...

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Is it Time for the Times to Get Out of Local Paper Business?

You can feel the walls closing in at the new, light-filled Times building off Times Square. Consider: —America’s (the world’s?) largest newsroom is getting a major haircut. Of the current 1300 jobs, 100 will be gone soon, victim of the increasingly familiar buyout/layoff ...

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