Gannett to Buy the Journal Sentinel

[pbmax]

That puts the two groups of Packers beat guys in the same company. Jobs are going to be consolidated.

Journal Sentinel @journalsentinel 2h
Breaking: @Gannett to buy Journal Media Group, parent of Journal Sentinel, for $280 million http://jsonl.in/T994u

Aaron Nagler @AaronNagler 2h2 hours ago
Whoa. @BobMcGinn and @WesHod, suddenly colleagues.

Greg A. Bedard @GregABedard
@AaronNagler Can't wait until @BobMcGinn and @TomSilverstein have to apply for their jobs. (Face palm)

Greg A. Bedard @GregABedard 1h1 hour ago
@Shane_Sparks highly doubtful they keep 2 Packers teams


So Bedard keeps a gig despite the fact that he demonstrably cannot evaluate coach versus talent questions, yet we lose either McGinn or Dougherty, and probably Silverstein.

[KYPack]

Hey, a little more fabric here.

What's going on, what's gonna happen?

[mraynrand]

Hey, a little more fabric here.

What's going on, what's gonna happen?

looks like they want you to pay them to read about their takeover #easilycircumventedpaywall

[mraynrand]

I started in this business because this is what I wanted to do.
I knewI wasn't going to write the Great American Novel, but I also knew
there was more to life than buying something for a dollar and selling it for two. I wanted to give the
news to the world, and I wanted to give it unvarnished. The more we all know about each other, the
greater the chance we will survive. Sure, I want to make a profit, you can't exist without one but John
Bontecou is all profit. If we give him license to absorb Parrish Communications, and he has his eye
on a few others after us, we'll be appointing him to the position he craves -- Gatekeeper. In order to
reach the world you will have to go through John Bontecou. And not only will you have to pay him to do this,
far more expensive, you'll have to agree with him. Reporting the news is a privilege and a responsibility
and it is not exploitable. Parrish Communications has earned this privilege, John Bontecou wants to buy
it. As your chairman, I urge you to agree this company is not for sale.

...

[Patler]

New guy must be regretting his decision to come to the Journal.

[smuggler]

I gave up on the JS like 10 years ago. Now it can finally die. RIP.

[pbmax]

Hey, a little more fabric here.

What's going on, what's gonna happen?

Gannett has been in on the trend of buying local dailies for a while. They own the GBPG and a bunch of very small local papers in WI (Stevens Point) and I am sure elsewhere. They also have a publishing facility somewhere between Oshkosh and GB (I pass it by on every trip to Fox Valley, but have no idea what exit its on - Hwy 41 somewhere). They are getting the JS company for over $200 mil.

The most remarkable feature of the Gannett locals in smaller towns is that they are tiny; literally half the size a newspaper used to be. They are filled with the same stories in each town. The same writers in GB cover the big articles in News and Sports and the Homestyle section is wire service filler. The local section does have local news and some business coverage and there are other local items scattered throughout. Whether this coverage is produced by people in the area, I can't say.

Its a local paper, but in the same way that USAToday is a local Cincy paper because of its Bengals coverage and the paragraph long News and Notes section on Ohio.

They also sell their stories on their syndication service (Wisconsin State Journal has no Packer beat guys, they publish the GBPG stuff as well).

So the question will be how much of the local staff gets retained at JS? Does the retained Milwaukee staff come at the expense of the people in Green Bay? In this model, Stevens Point cannot sustain a full staff for a paper obviously. But Milwaukee and Green Bay together don't need two full time staffs. And one obvious area of overlap is Packer coverage.

GBPG has a new Packer editor, Dougherty, and WesHod. JS has McGinn, Silverstein, new guy Cohen and their own editor. I don't think they all survive. One will end up with the Pack and I would bet another ends up on a cable/radio outfit like Wilde and ESPN.

I Tweeted a job offer to Silverstein to work here. He accepted. I hope Mad has that ad money lying around.

[red]

i can't believe someone in this day and age paid $280 million for a newspaper

[Cheesehead Craig]

So does this mean that after the merger we can go back to their Packer forums?

[mraynrand]

i can't believe someone in this day and age paid $280 million for a newspaper

I usually only pay 75 cents.

[Cleft Crusty]

I Tweeted a job offer to Silverstein to work here. He accepted. I hope Mad has that ad money lying around.

Hey, wait just one damn minute. You're gonna pay Silverstein before you pay Cleft Crusty? I only ask for 67 cents/hour. I'm cheaper than someone who just crossed the border. What say you Packerrats? Cleft Crusty at 67 per or Silverstein?

[pbmax]

Hey, wait just one damn minute. You're gonna pay Silverstein before you pay Cleft Crusty? I only ask for 67 cents/hour. I'm cheaper than someone who just crossed the border. What say you Packerrats? Cleft Crusty at 67 per or Silverstein?

I thought you worked for pharmaceutical samples?

[pbmax]

i can't believe someone in this day and age paid $280 million for a newspaper

I have not read up on it, but local papers are sort of hot properties, especially one's in smaller towns*. Buffett has been buying them. No sure if the approach is actually anticipated growth, flipping them to media conglomerates or just disassembling them.

* My info on this is at least a year out of date. I think I read it in coverage of Buffett's annual shareholder letter.

[pbmax]

So does this mean that after the merger we can go back to their Packer forums?

Media websites ranked:

1. Anyone else
2. JSO
3. Gannett (GBPG)
4. Whatever genius is conning TV stations into having websites that don't work, in order to drive Internet users back to TV.

Its not going to be better.

[pbmax]

New guy must be regretting his decision to come to the Journal.

This just reminded me that one photojournalist is probably getting the heave ho as well.