The company donated the Chronicle Tribune in Marion, Ind., to the Gannett Foundation in the spring of 2007, then soon after arranged for it to be sold to Paxton Media Group in Paducah, Ky., for a then-undisclosed sum. Now, the foundation's newly-filed 2007 tax return shows it sold a newspaper that year for $12.3 million; it doesn't identify the paper, but it's surely Marion. Gannett had owned the paper for 36 years.Historically, Gannett has funded the foundation with gifts of newspapers. Proceeds from the sale of these papers are then distributed as grants. Yet, with virtually no market for paper sales these days, I wonder how the foundation's going to get money in the future?
[Image: today's front page, Newseum]
We must have sold them because of a low item count front page.
ReplyDeleteI see only one breakout box, no pull quotes or head shots. The rail story is one story!
Thank goodness the huge basketball at top and that stupid 'Operation' graphic made it in, or you would have thought you actually got some news in Marion.
I don't know how much it was sold for but I do know there is over 800k in cash sitting in an account that Gannett has not done anything with.
ReplyDeleteWhat other papers have been "donated" to fill the foundation's coffers?
ReplyDeleteAnyone visit there on an API seminar or other event?
Those folks live large.
Jeeze, 5:32, give 'em a break. You think Gannett is cheap? Try Paxton -- they make GCI look generous in terms of staffing and overtime. They're doing the best they can.
ReplyDelete5:32 here - sorry, 11:44, I was being sarcastic. It's nice to see a paper that values the readers' time by giving them something worthwhile to read, not a thousand entry points on every story.
ReplyDeleteNice to see the guidelines on this comment box are completely ignored. Way to attack a staff of great journalists trying to keep their heads above water and producing a newspaper their community actually values, despite the woeful working conditions. (Yes, 5:32, I'm talking to you.) Your "sarcasm" wasn't apparent in the least. (In fact, I don't buy that it was sarcasm.) Story count doesn't sell papers; relevant information does. And if saving money on health care isn't relevant, I don't know what is. The fact that quality doesn't figure into the equation for media companies big and small is one of the reasons this industry is tanking.
ReplyDelete