The Enronning of the nation’s dinosaur fishwraps continues and seems to be speeding up.
The St. Louis PD was owned by the Pulitzer family until a few years ago. Looks like they got out just in time.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/01/business/media/01paper.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
February 1, 2005
Pulitzer to Be Acquired by Lee Enterprises
By JACQUES STEINBERG
Pulitzer Inc., the publisher of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Arizona Daily Star and 12 other daily newspapers in the Midwest and West, has agreed to be acquired by Lee Enterprises, a newspaper chain based in Davenport, Iowa, for nearly $1.5 billion.
The deal joins two like-minded companies. Lee’s 44 daily newspapers stretch from Glens Falls, N.Y.,(where it publishes The Post-Star) to Oceanside, Calif., (The North County Times), but are largely clustered in the Midwest. The company publishes The Wisconsin State Journal and The Capital Times in Madison, Wis., and The Sioux City Journal in Sioux City, Iowa.
The companies announced the deal late Sunday night, in unannounced e-mail statements sent to reporters who cover the industry, as well as in articles that appeared yesterday in their own publications.
By Lee’s tally, the 58 daily newspapers owned by the combined company, which would be known as Lee, would make it the fourth largest in the country, behind Gannett, Community Newspaper Holdings and Liberty Group Publishing. As measured by combined weekday circulation, the company would rank seventh, Lee said. Pulitzer would be a subsidiary.
“It’s just an ideal fit,” said Mary Junck, chairwoman, president and chief executive of Lee, which had revenue of $683 million for the fiscal year ended in September. “Pulitzer operates in exactly the kind of markets Lee operates in.”
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