Newsonomics: Six Takeaways From McClatchy’s Bankruptcy

What McClatchy’s Thursday bankruptcy filing lacked in suspense, it makes up for in our ability to game out the next skirmishes in the Consolidation Games, now ramping up its second season. That massive movement within the newspaper industry — equal parts financialization and consolidation — has ...

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Newsonomics: As McClatchy Reorgs, A New Set Of Money Men Enters The News Industry spotlight

Whenever the definitive history of daily newspapering is written, 2019 will be recorded as a major turning point. Today, one year-long drama comes to a close, or at least an act break: New Gannett, the result of America’s two largest newspaper companies merging, will become a reality as the ...

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“Newsonomics: In The Consolidation Games, Enter The Bankers”

The bankers are now hired. Is the early 2019 newspaper chain M&A face-off now getting serious? It’s reminiscent of an earlier brand of warfare. Newspaper chains — all cutting desperately, each facing a shortening deadline to make a “digital transition” — line up their dealmaking armies, ...

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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 L.A. Times, California Collapse and Oregon’s New Troubles

No, the saga of the Los Angeles Times isn’t the only story in the newspaper world. It’s just that in its breathtaking oddness, it consumed the beginning of our year. Let’s begin with one question about the future of the Times, but then move on to other early-in-the-year questions that may tell ...

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Newsonomics: Tronc & The Daily News, What To Make Of This Out-Of-The Blue Buy

For much of the winter and spring, Michael Ferro was uncharacteristically quiet. Once he’d defeated Gannett’s hostile takeover attempt of his newly named Tronc, Ferro seemed to cease being the center of the news industry storm. Some applauded; others privately told me they missed ...

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Michael Ferro’s Tronc Aims to Complete Chicago Domination With Sun-Times Purchase

Update: Final bids for the Sun-Times are now due on June 5: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-tronc-sun-times-deal-other-buyers-0601-biz-20170531-story.html   While Tronc chairman Michael Ferro has enjoyed the celebrity allure of his largest paper, the Los Angeles Times, it is in ...

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