“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: Amid Screaming Alarms, Consolidation Mania Turns Feverish

Alden’s going to snatch Gannett! No, Gannett’s going to turn the tables and buy Alden’s Digital First Media! But wait, Gannett will reject Alden — is that a real offer? — and turn its attention to merging with Tribune! No, Tribune — having dispatched its CEO Justin Dearborn to clear the way for ...

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Newsonomics: Can Michael Ferro’s ‘I Am Tribune’ Routine Hold Up In Court?

As Gannett’s strategy to make a quick kill of Tribune Publishing goes south, could a lawsuit save it?   Large Tribune investors have all but threatened to file suit. They’ve charged that Tribune chairman Michael Ferro isn’t representing the interests of all shareholders, as a leader of a ...

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Newsonomics: Readers’ Guide Tribune gets Troncked: A Reader’s Guide to the Tribune/Gannett War

        In a move that, even amid all the nastiness of the Tribune/Gannett war, we would still have to consider stunning, Tribune Publishing has renamed itself — to tronc. In a memo to Tribune staff this afternoon, CEO Justin Dearborn wrote: Today, I am pleased to announce ...

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Newsonomics: How Gannett’s Bid for Tribune Went South

Gannett’s hopes for a quick acquisition of Tribune Publishing, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and a half dozen other regional newspapers, are looking increasingly problematic. Tomorrow at the Los Angeles office of law firm Sidley Austin, Tribune will hold its ...

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Newsonomics: Tribune Publishing is Busy Playing Catch-Up

Throughout this morning’s earnings call, the thought reoccurred: Jack Griffin’s new Tribune Publishing Company is playing catch-up. Then, toward the end of the call, one a little more informative than average, the CEO said it plainly, and more honestly than what we usually expect to hear on ...

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The Newsonomics of the Tribune Detour

It’s a Koch-around. The unexpected, and real, interest of Charles and David Koch in buying all the Tribune papers has set off a public and labor furor ("The Newsonomics of the Kochs Rising and Uprising"). While the AFL-CIO itself has mounted a quite public protest, two of Tribune’s owners — ...

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