Posted on 03/27/2006 3:04:31 AM PST by abb
With the McClatchy Company set to accept bids, starting as early as tomorrow, for the 12 Knight Ridder papers it is selling, some of the potential buyers are looking at the country as if it were a giant chessboard.
The goal is not to topple a king but to become one — a king of each regional market where potential buyers already own newspapers and can achieve economies of scale by buying pieces of Knight Ridder.
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The sales are likely to lead to a further consolidation of the newspaper industry around the country. During the last decade or so, newspapers have been "clustering," that is, buying papers near one another, allowing them to save money by combining their advertising sales and printing operations and, in some cases, their news divisions.
Analysts said that clustering was a major motivation for many of the newspaper companies that are now interested in pieces of Knight Ridder. To achieve their ends, these companies could go into partnerships or even swap other papers.
According to analysts, the newspaper companies that are potential buyers include the following:
¶The MediaNews Group, Dean Singleton's company, which already owns nearly two dozen papers in California and will almost certainly be interested in at least 3 of the 12 Knight Ridder papers: The San Jose Mercury News, The Contra Costa Times and The Herald of Monterey County.
¶Gannett, the nation's biggest newspaper publisher with operations in 41 states, including Indiana and Ohio, which may want The News-Sentinel in Fort Wayne, Ind., and The Akron Beacon Journal.
¶ Lee Enterprises, which owns dailies in the Midwest and could be looking at The Pioneer Press in St. Paul as well as The Duluth News Tribune, The Aberdeen American News in South Dakota and The Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Boy, that's one classy fish wrap.
Look for 2 or 3 of the 12 papers up for sale to be closed....
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