Posted on 08/13/2008 10:26:35 PM PDT by Zakeet
Cox Enterprises, Inc. has decided to put The Lufkin Daily News and all its Texas newspapers up for sale with a goal of closing a deal by the first quarter of 2009.
Based in Atlanta, Cox also intends to sell all its stand-alone newspapers in North Carolina and Colorado, as well as Valpak, a direct-mail advertising operation.
Other Texas papers Cox intends to sell include: the Austin American-Statesmen, The Longview News-Journal, the Waco Tribune-Herald, The Marshall News Messenger and the Daily Sentinel in Nacogdoches.
Cox will retain ownership of daily newspapers in Atlanta; Dayton, Ohio; and West Palm Beach, Fla.
Tim Hobbs, publisher of The Lufkin Daily News, said the paper's focus would not change, with "business as usual" continuing.
"We'll remain an active community partner and committed to being the leading news and information provider in each community that we serve," Hobbs said. "Our employees are what make the newspaper such a valuable asset and we believe The Lufkin Daily News will be attractive to certain buyers, given its community roots and stable financial position. I am proud of the professionalism that each of our employees have exhibited and their commitment to continuing to produce quality print and online products."
Cox executives said the sales would allow the privately owned company to attain strategic goals.
"The decision was made as part of an ongoing strategic review of our portfolio and enables us to maintain our strong and stable financial performance by further paying down debt," Cox Enterprises Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Kennedy said.
Cox has hired Citigroup to help in marketing the newspapers, and Goldman Sachs will assist with the sale of Valpak.
(Excerpt) Read more at lufkindailynews.com ...
Newspapers play a valuable role in the communities they serve ... and will continue to operate will continue to provide timely, valuable and trustworthy information to their readers ... even after we peddle them as fast as we can at fire sale prices.
I was always bothered by X in the Cox Logo. It appears to not be an X but rather a Cross slanted to the Left.
I doubt they’ll find a buyer for Valspam.
Does anyone actually even bother opening that garbage any more?
I like the ability to hold and read a newspaper. I just cannot sit at a computer to read news for to long. I never read long interesting articles because of that. I understand the problems in regards to cost for the newspaper industry. Perhaps if they would adopt well made websites that one could print the newspaper off on their own printer if they wanted to. Der Wanderer did that with their new website. You can log on and read the paper or print it off in perfect format for reading.
http://www.thewandererpress.com/ee/wandererpress/demo.php
They somehow make money on a response rate of less than 2%.
Check out the Amazon Kindle or Apple iPhone. I take my news with me and read it wherever.
More trouble for liberals as their papers are tanking.I just wish it would happen faster.The ajc knows to avoid our subdivision when they are out trying to push “THE RAG”.
Cox may have sold the Lufkin paper due to the size of market it sells. Often holding small markets isn’t always financially smart. Lufkin is the “farmer’s market” town for its section of East Texas. Probably a total market of 50,000 people.
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