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Gannett Co. has reached an agreement to acquire newspaper company Journal Media Group for $280 million, giving the media giant control of publications in more than 100 local markets in the U.S., company officials announced Wednesday evening. Journal Media publications dot the Midwest and South and include the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Memphis (Tennessee) Commercial-Appeal and Knoxville (Tennessee) News Sentinel. Industry experts say the publications are a natural fit for Gannett’s strategy of maximizing short-term profits through managing the decline of publications in less competitive markets.

PORT OF NESS, Scotland, A Scottish oil rig worker set a record by eating half a pickled baby gannet and 14.1 ounces of potatoes in just 3 minutes and 44 seconds. Peter Macritchie, 33, ate half of a guga, the Gaelic name for a gannet, and his required serving of potatoes in 3 minutes and 44 seconds Saturday at the World Guga Eating Championships at the Ness FC Social Club in Port of Ness, Scotland, the Scotsman reported Monday. Macritchie finished just a second ahead of second-place finisher Willie Macritchie, who is not a relative. Donald Macsween, organizer of the...

Newspapers are a tough business to be in. But life is tougher when you’re stupid, as one of John Wayne’s characters famously said, and certainly some of the layoffs that befell the employees of the Gannett newspaper chain this week are that kind of tougher. The chain is institutionally anti-gun, and its editorial employees have been hostile to legal gun owners on a visceral level. Some properties particularly stand out, like the Lower Hudson News, famous for “outing” the gun owners in its publication area, and for then hunkering down behind armed guards and demanding the arrest of plebes who...

Citing the slower-than-expected pace of the economy recovery, Gannett Co. said it plans to lay off about 700 employees as part of a broader round of cost cuts in its U.S. newspaper division. The job reductions represent about 2% of the company's work force and will affect Gannett's U.S. Community Publishing division, which consists of about 80 daily papers. Gannett, the largest U.S. publisher by circulation, also owns USA Today, which isn't part of that unit............ Gannett, which also owns TV stations, has had several rounds of layoffs and other cuts, including furloughs, in recent years to get costs in...

The Gannett Company, the nation’s largest newspaper publisher, said on Wednesday that it would force thousands of its employees to take a week off without pay in an effort to avoid layoffs. Gannett, which owns 85 daily newspapers across the United States including its flagship USA Today, said it could not say exactly how many people would be required to take time off, or how much money the company would save. But it said it would require unpaid leave for most of its 31,000 employees in this country. Also on Wednesday, USA Today notified its staff of a one-year pay...

Marching orders The press reveals its convictions in coverage of war and abortion ralliesBy Tim GrahamIt's not often that the nation's capital witnesses two major rallies within four days of each other. On Jan. 18, opponents of a U.S. war against Iraq drew tens of thousands to the national mall to protest. Four days later, another crowd of tens of thousands congregated for the annual March for Life to mourn the 30th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion on demand. The "peace" rally was mostly angry, with podium speakers lamenting the supposedly destructive impact of the...