Newsonomics: Dean Singleton on The Denver Post: “Everything I believe about the news business is being violated”

It might only seem that the walls are tumbling in at The Denver Post. Or it might be reality. In a stunningly quick series of events, the Post has continued to shed staff — not by firing or layoff, but by what might best be described as resigned resignation. At the same time, I’ve learned, a ...

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Newsonomics: Alden Global Capital Is Making So Much Money Wrecking Local Journalism It Might Not Want To Stop Anytime Soon

Is there any chance Alden Global Capital might change course? The majority owner of Digital First Media — publisher of The Mercury News, The Denver Post, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, 11 Southern California dailies, and 49 others from California to Michigan to New Jersey — has faced a rising tide ...

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Newsonomics: Still Another Tronc Drama, As John Lynch Re-Enters The Business

Tronc doesn’t do anything by the book. Even as much of the company’s turbulence looks to be clearing, new questions are emerging about who will next lead the big metro chain. Softbank and Apollo Global Management have reportedly expressed real interest in buying the company, but much more ...

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Newsonomics: What’s Holding Up Patrick Soon-Shiong’s L.A. Times Closing?

In Los Angeles, Soon-Shiong had been expected to close his close-to-$600 million deal for the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune by now. That expectation had been set by Tronc itself and others involved in the agreement. Sources say that the deal will soon close and that it’s been ...

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Newsonomics: Will Facebook’s Troubles Finally Cure Publishers Of Patformitis?

That Facebook’s fall from grace will be twinned in history with the rise of Trumpism seems poetic. It’s a digital Frankenstein fable, one even Mel Brooks might have a hard time satirizing: a perhaps uncontrollable phenomenon escaping from the laboratory (or, in the modern case, Room H33). ...

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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: “Retiring” From Tronc, What Is Michael Ferro Up To?

    Updated later March 19, 7:52 p.m.: So what led Tronc chairman Michael Ferro to suddenly “retire” today? I throw around some ideas in the piece below, published early afternoon, but it looks as if we have a definitive answer. Fortune’s Kristen Bellstrom and Beth Kowitt broke the ...

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Newsonomics: How Grows The Millennial Market, Charlotte Agenda and Spirited Media?

Two local-news companies have focused on the large millennial populations in urban centers. Now, with several years under their collective belts, we can report some intriguing numbers. By far, their number one source of revenue: sponsorship.   RELATED ARTICLE On track to bring in $850,000 ...

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Newsonomics: Did Digital First Media Owner Alden Cook The Books?

  That’s the allegation now moving into Delaware’s Chancery Court. This week, Solus Alternative Asset Management LP accused Alden Global Capital — the increasingly maligned majority owner of Digital First Media — of “possible mismanagement and breaches of fiduciary duty.” The big charge: ...

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Newsonomics: As News Guard Gets Funded, Will An Ad Play Lead It To Success?

The latest Steve Brill/Gordon Crovitz startup (which I described in detail last fall) takes an easy-to-understand traffic light approach to combatting the scourge of fake news. Its promised green/yellow/red signals seem like they should be brain-dead simple for even the least brand-aware of ...

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