Newsonomics: The Next 48 Hours Could Determine The Fate Of Two Of America’s Largest Newspaper Chains

The next 48 hours may decide the fate of two of America’s largest newspaper chains that collectively serve almost a fifth of all American local newspaper readers. And what happens in those hours could prompt a wave of other moves across the rest of the industry. The dates June 30 and July 1 ...

Read More

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 ...

Read More

Turns Out Warren Buffett Won’t Be The Billionaire Who Saves Newspapers Either

By JOSHUA BENTON AND KEN DOCTOR  Circa 2012, one of the most popular lines among American newspaper journalists went something like this: “Newspapers can’t be that terrible of a business if Warren Buffett, the smartest investor in the world, wants in.” That was the year that Buffett’s Berkshire ...

Read More

Newsonomics: With Its Merger Approved, The New Gannett Readies The Cost-Cutting Knife

You think $300 million in costs cut is a big number? Try $400 million. Or more than $400 million. Those are the internal numbers in the air as America’s two largest newspaper chains, Gannett and GateHouse, try to land their megamerger, first announced in August. Follow the money: When I ...

Read More

Newsonomics: It’s Looking Like Gannett Will Be Acquired By GateHouse — Creating A Newspaper Megachain Like The U.S. Has Never Seen

The deal isn’t yet finished. But I’m told by multiple sources that there are no major stumbling blocks left to negotiate in a megamerger between the United States’ two largest daily newspaper chains — Gannett and GateHouse. It’s increasingly likely to happen, with an announcement by summer’s ...

Read More

Newsonomics: Newspapers In Name Only & Who’s Going To Build What Comes Next In Local?

Neil Chase knows the painful realities of managing and motivating a daily newsroom in 2018. “You can’t ask dedicated, veteran career journalists to completely change the way they work without explaining why,” the Mercury News executive editor said at a panel discussion I moderated at Stanford ...

Read More

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. ...

Read More

Tronc Investor Patrick Soon-Shiong Ups Stake Again in Battle for Control of Newspaper Giant

What’s a Tronc (TRNC) worth these days, or, more precisely, what’s a quarter of a Tronc worth in early spring 2017? That’s our media math question of the day. On Monday, Tronc Vice Chairman, would-be Friend of Trump, Los Angeles Lakers part-owner and anti-cancer crusader ...

Read More

Tronc Turmoil: Beyond the Public Quiet, Pressure Builds in Delaware Courts, Gannett HQ and Tribune Tower Itself

After noisily consuming much of the news industry oxygen during the first half of 2016, the quiet currently emanating from tronc HQ seems almost unsettling. There have been no tronc announcements since the big news of Tribune Publishing re-naming on June 20. Gannett hasn’t made a peep since ...

Read More

Gannett Outlines Its New Waiting Game

Gannett CEO Bob Dickey is slowing down in his quest to acquire Tribune Publishing, but he has no plans on stopping. Today, Dickey’s Gannett took a public deep breath – and vowed to persist in its unwanted wooing of Tribune. Surprising some, Gannett put no more money on the table. The company ...

Read More