Posted on 01/16/2009 10:13:11 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
TUCSON, Ariz. - Gannett Co., the largest newspaper publisher in the country, will close the Tucson Citizen if it does not find a buyer for certain assets owned by the paper by March 21.
Robert J. Dickey, president of Gannett U.S. Community Publishing, made the announcement in a brief meeting with employees Friday.
"The Tucson Citizen has been part of Gannett since 1976, and we deeply regret having to take this step," Dickey said. "But dramatic changes in our industry combined with the difficult economy _ particularly in this region _ mean it is no longer viable for our partnership with Lee Enterprises Inc. to produce two daily newspapers in Tucson."
The Citizen, an afternoon newspaper, operates under a joint operating agreement with the Arizona Daily Star, a morning paper owned by Davenport, Iowa-based Lee Enterprises Inc. Print production, distribution, sales and other non-editorial functions for both the Citizen and the Star operate under the name Tucson Newspapers Inc.
Gannett and Lee Enterprises split any profits from TNI equally. Dickey told Citizen employees the paper as its own entity is losing money and the newspaper had become an increasing drain on Gannett operations over the last eight months.
However, through the JOA that runs through 2015, Gannett received about $13 million in 2007, TNI President Mike Jameson said. He added that the profit split from 2008 will be much less. He did not specify the amount.
Gannett spokeswoman Tara Connell said the company was selling "the softer assets" of the Citizen _ "the name, the Web site, the URL, the contact list, advertising list, contracting list, subscriber list."
Dickey declined to announce an asking price or the estimated value of the newspaper.
(Excerpt) Read more at kaaltv.com ...
I lived in Tucson in the 1990s, for four years. The “big” Tucson paper...was the morning paper which everyone bought. The Citizen was the afternoon paper, and I doubt that one adult out of ten in Tucson read the paper. In a four-year period...I bought the paper about twenty times. Its just not a two-paper town, even though half of the town is over fifty years old and probably reads papers daily.
An afternoon paper in a town the size of Tucson, this is really prehistoric.
The Arizona Daily Star and the Tucson Citizen are owned and operated out of the same office. Don’t know if the Star was the Morning paper you refer to, and I am not sure it is affected by this.
Just kidding, great woman who passed away to young, but constantly (I do mean all the time) referred to herself as an “old Fossil”. You pic made me think of her.
I’m not 2nd Div. Vet.
The Arizona Red Star - oops the Arizona Daily Star - is pretty incestuous with the Citizen already. It turned hard left in the last 5-8 years IMO and lost a lot of readers, including me.
AZ ping
Take all the compliments you can, though. ;->
The citizen was conservative compared to the Arizona red Star. Never subscribed but I did read it every so often. I’d rather have seen the red Star go broke but Tucson is a liberal town so this is what you’d expect.
And all that.
I sincerely hope the Houston Chronicle is the next dinosaur medium to go bye-bye; they just raised their newsstand price from 75 cents to $1.00/copy on Monday.
Left-wing overpriced scum.
For many of us, the only reason to sub to the Citizen was killed with that sharp left turn, and their numbers have gone down by more than 30% since 2000. The Star also has circulation problems, but it was always known as the lefty paper so conservatives were not likely to stop subs they didnt have to that paper.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.