Posted on 12/06/2008 4:08:36 AM PST by abb
The McClatchy Company, burdened by debt and a steep slide in newspaper advertising, wants to sell one of its most-prized properties, The Miami Herald, according to people briefed on the company’s plans.
McClatchy, the nation’s third-largest newspaper chain, has approached potential buyers for The Herald, said these people, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue. But they said they knew of no serious offers for the paper, reflecting the evaporation of major investors’ interest in buying newspapers.
The company refused to discuss the matter. Elaine Lintecum, the treasurer, said, “We do not comment on market rumors.”
The Herald is one of the largest of McClatchy’s 30 daily papers, with daily circulation of 210,000, and arguably the most prestigious, having won 19 Pulitzer Prizes. But it is not clear what kind of bids it might fetch, if any; with newspaper profits shrinking fast, the economy contracting and credit tight, many newspapers have been on the block for months without selling.
The people briefed on the company’s plans say The Herald generates a very slim operating margin and that the most attractive part of any deal could be its prime waterfront real estate. But the Florida real estate market is in deep recession — one of the reasons for the struggles of the paper, which used to benefit from heavy real estate advertising.
The bid to sell The Herald continues the fallout from McClatchy’s $4.5 billion purchase in 2006 of Knight Ridder, the newspaper chain that had owned the Miami paper. Largely as a result of that deal the company has about $2 billion in debt, payments on which eat up much of its cash flow.
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
ping
The next round of bailouts will be for the MSM.
http://www.contentbridges.com/
Rocky Mountain News “Sale” Shows Peril of Crossing Profit Line
http://recoveringjournalist.typepad.com/recovering_journalist/2008/12/still-no-sale.html
Still No Sale
http://bristolnews.blogspot.com/2008/12/some-hope-from-hartford.html
Some hope from Hartford
http://bristolnews.blogspot.com/2008/12/state-officials-guardedly-optimistic.html
State officials ‘guardedly optimistic’ that papers can be saved
http://bristolnews.blogspot.com/2008/12/statement-from-many-of-employees-of.html
A statement from many of the employees of The Bristol Press
And the Wall St Journal was doing great...now they have moved to the left...my favorite, once conservative, capitalist paper will soon be gone too.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/business/media/06network.html?ref=business
NBC to Shuffle Its Entertainment Unit
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/company_town/index.html
NBC’s Friday morning massacre
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-nbc6-2008dec06,0,3601996.story
Struggling NBC sends 3 top executives packing
http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/dreamworks-delays-funding-until-march-31st/
DreamWorks Delays Funding Until April 1
“The Titanic is now for sale” said Captain Smith.
If only the Raleigh News & Disturber were on the chopping block. One can always hope.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone Conservative could/would buy it and begin actually reporting the news!
Really, isnt there a rich conservative that can buy it up and transform the tabloid to an actual newspaper?
How sad that Miami hasn’t had a newspaper for years.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iUWLkgDgOqoCFxmoFmaTKmORJ7swD94T20H00
Chairman: Cubs to be sold by spring training
I stopped buying this rag a while ago. With racist opinion writers, biased democrats and anti bush journalist I was skipping half the paper.
They really showed there a-s with the obama coverage
Thursday, Scripps put the Rocky Mountain News (Denver) up for sale. One pundit says they’ll shut it down in 90 days or so - there won’t be a buyer.
I suspect the Miami Herald might last a little longer than that. But not much.
>>>>>McClatchy’s $4.5 billion purchase in 2006 of Knight Ridder,<<<<<<<<
Hard to believe the McClatchy family signed-on to that idiotic decision.
Hey, New York Times Corporation is now worth less than what they bought the Boston Globe for.
But the Ridder family got out just in the nick of time. As did the Pulitzer family.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/14/BUGEJHNF9F1.DTL
Ridder to get millions in sale
Newspaper chain execs will profit in McClatchy deal
http://www.forbes.com/2005/01/31/0131autofacescan02.html
Pulitzer: Dynasty Closes A Chapter In Newspaper Publishing
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