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The megamerger is really happening. Expect the new Gannett — the brand that will survive that chain's acquisition by GateHouse Media — to officially take wobbly flight soon, perhaps around Thanksgiving.
Both companies, the country's No. 1 and No. 2 newspaper publishers, say it's full speed ahead. Independent financial analysts tell me that their data-driven analysis shows a 90-percent-plus chance the merger completes. The deal has already gotten the blessing of the Department of Justice's antitrust division; that approval flashes a very green light to all the other newspaper chains eyeing various mergers and recombinations.
So by New Year's Day 2020, all the companies' news products across 265 markets will move under one giant umbrella. Never before in U.S. history have we seen a single company own and manage so much of the American newspaper business — about one of every six dailies. (Both companies are declining comment on the merger's details at this juncture.)
In other words, it's been a boffo opening season of The Consolidation Games, the newspaper-industry drama that's played out in corporate offices, bank meeting rooms, and the stock market since the beginning of 2019 — and which is certain to be picked up for a second series in 2020.
Readers, advertisers, and journalists will feel the reverberations of the Gannett–GateHouse merger for years to come
[...] These are two struggling companies seeking short-term salvation — enough oxygen to get a few more years down the road. Taking a $300 million whack at all the "redundancies" in day-to-day operation seems a better choice than going it alone. Sure, it'll cost $100 million or so to cut all those jobs and rationalize all that tech — most of it in severance. But that's far preferable, both Gannett and GateHouse believe, than a thousand smaller cuts, atop the thousands both have already made.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 11 2019, @11:09AM (1 child)
local journalism is gutted by the lack of money.
people are not willing to support it for various reasons.
these mergers are just people trying to survive under these conditions.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Friday October 11 2019, @11:55AM
There's a bit more to it than those first two points, and the third is a bald lie. The mergers reduce economic viability.
Newspapers do have economic problems from Faecebook and Craigslist and the like but could hang on except for the mergers. The mergers bring in new owners which have no non-economic investment in what's going on and more to the point try to squeeze the business for 30% or 40% "profits". Most businesses cannot stay viable while some ¡*&$%! skims 40% off the top. That applies to any business. Therefore the business schools not only formally teach MBAs how to cook the books but also instruct on how to run a "successful" bankruptcy. It is therefore no wonder that the local and regional papers go under when that happens.
As icing on the cake, there are further benefits to many of these new owners and their friends when these news sources get cut off.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.