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: The Megaclustering Of The American Local Press

People in the newspaper industry increasingly joke about the triumvirate of Gatehouse Media LLC, Digital First Media Inc. and Gannett Co. (GCI) taking over the bulk of the country’s 1,350 daily newspapers as conglomerate Gannett-Gatehouse-DFMCo. Today, those three companies own a full quarter ...

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An Outbrain For Newspapers: Headlines Network Launches

You can call it Outbrain for newspapers, if you want. Or perhaps a tamer Taboola. Tim Landon doesn’t particularly care how you characterize his latest network effort. Just click on his widgets – which you’ll soon see on hundreds of daily newspaper sites across the country, starting over the ...

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Newsonomics: Your Gannettenfreude Will Only Take You So Far

It seems to be going around this week, but try not to catch it: Gannettenfreude. While it might seem like a great, borrowed-from-the-Teutonic word for a soap opera-like, mangled newspaper M&A mess, Gannettenfreude may be even more pernicious. Gannettenfreude is the taking of delight in the ...

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House of Murdoch, Sulzberger Shuffle & The Next Gannett: 10 Storylines into 2017

It’s been a remarkable year for the nation, and its press. Transfixed by the Trump phenomenon, election anxiety has all but consumed us. But soon, what has felt like a national colonoscopy will soon be over, and the press will march (or at least step) forward. As we consider the most ...

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Newsonomics: The Financialization of News Is Dimming the Lights of the Local Press

There’s a nice scene in Hail, Caesar!, the Coen brothers’ latest movie, in which one Hollywood character astutely observes: “We’re not talking about money — we’re talking about economics.” Indeed. This year’s crazy-making U.S. presidential election further illuminates and blurs that divide. ...

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Sheldon Adelson Tightens Grip on Las Vegas Review-Journal

After a brief spell of normalcy seemed to return to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, all bets are now off. A new publisher has appeared overnight at the paper, a new editor will be installed as soon as Friday, and, sources tell me, stories involving new owner Sheldon Adelson are being reviewed, ...

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With Gatehouse Newspaper Chain on the Hot Seat, CEO Mike Reed Responds

Several mysteries tumbled out of Sheldon Adelson’s secret $140 million purchase of the Las Vegas Review-Journal in early December (“The new breed of newspaper mogul”). Some have been answered, and others hang in the air. One big one: seller Gatehouse Media’s own journalistic ethics. That’s a ...

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After Adelson: Gatehouse Moves to Repair Las Vegas Damage

The company that runs the Las Vegas Review-Journal is taking steps this week to repair its reputation after a series of reports of sketchy-seeming journalistic practices related to the recent sale of the newspaper to casino magnate Sheldon Adelson (“The new breed of newspaper mogul: On ...

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Newsonomics: Digital First Media’s Upcoming Sale Produces Some Surprises

Anxious journalists from San Jose to Saint Paul, New Haven to Novato await the final shouts of the Digital First Media auction. Bidding is still in progress, as DFM’s regional business heads coast to coast make presentations to would-be buyers, anonymous to them, by conference call. They share ...

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