Rocky Mountain News “Sale” Shows Peril of Crossing Profit Line
As daily newspapers become less than daily — witness the East Valley Tribune's move into the world of four-day-a-week dailiness in January — why would we expect a metro area to support two daily...
View ArticleThe Demise of Lean Dean Singleton and the Rise of Private Equity
Dean Singleton worked the deals in corners of the U.S. for decades, building from scratch a major chain, that by circulation (though, not revenue) is probably the second largest in the country. If he...
View ArticleThe Newsonomics of the Digital Mercado
First published at Nieman Journalism Lab It’s as old as organized humanity itself: the mercado, the bazaar, the marketplace. We love to visit Old World marketplaces as we travel abroad. At home, our...
View ArticleThe Newsonomics of 2013 Wizardry: Tribune, Buffett, Murdoch, Paton,...
First published at Nieman Journalism Lab It takes at least three special qualities to be in — much less to enter — the newspaper business these days. We can borrow them from L. Frank Baum: heart,...
View ArticleThe Newsonomics of Time and Money, and Google Surveys
First published at Nieman Journalism Lab What happens when a reader hits the paywall? Only a small percentage slap their foreheads, say “Why didn’t I subscribe earlier?” and pay up. Most go away; some...
View ArticleThe Newsonomics of Digital First Media’s Thunderdome Implosion (and Coming Sale)
Follow Newsonomics on Twitter @kdoctor First published at Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab Today, we’ll hear official word of the demise of Project Thunderdome, one of the news industry’s...
View ArticleNewsonomics: Digital First Media’s Upcoming Sale Produces Some Surprises
Anxious journalists from San Jose to Saint Paul, New Haven to Novato await the final shouts of the Digital First Media auction. Bidding is still in progress, as DFM’s regional business heads coast to...
View ArticleCerberus, Apollo Bidding for Digital First Media
First published at Capital New York After one cost-cutting private equity company has spent close to half a decade wielding the knife at Digital First Media, how many new “efficiencies” might a...
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Newsonomics: Are Post-Paton DFM Cuts More Than a Milking Strategy?
Two months ago, Digital First Media’s deal to sell itself to Apollo Global Management collapsed (“Apollo withdraws from DFM deal, Paton leaves”), and its founding CEO (and would-be industry leader)...
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Newsonomics: When News Companies Are No Longer Built To Last
I’ve gotten feedback about vulture capitalists, hatchet men, and chop shops, and of close-to-retirement publishers getting that unexpected knock on the door from visiting corporate vice presidents....
View ArticleDenverite Launches As First Of Would-Be Nationwide Digital-Only Local News Chain
Today, the news landscape in Denver gets just a little more crowded with today’s announcement of the launch of Denverite, about a month away. Denverite is part of a larger, if still tiny, local news...
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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:...
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Newsonomics: The Denver Post’s Protest Should Launch A New Era of “Calling B.S.”
What are we to make of The Denver Post’s “extraordinary display of defiance”? As the paper’s editorial board, led by Chuck Plunkett, fired a fusillade of public protest on Sunday — publishing six...
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Newsonomics: Alden Global Capital Is Making So Much Money Wrecking Local...
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...
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Newsonomics: Dean Singleton on The Denver Post: “Everything I believe about...
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,...
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