[In Motown: GCI's Free Press, left, and MediaNews-owned News]
Blogger Alan Mutter wonders whether MediaNews Group CEO William Singleton might use the parent company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last week to force consolidation of its newspaper holdings, including The Detroit News. That paper is published by the Gannett-controlled joint operating agency that also publishes the GCI-owned Detroit Free Press. From Mutter's post today:
"The newspaper business has been so dismal in Detroit that the dailies there abandoned home delivery for all but three days a week. With MediaNews stripped of debt, it would be in the position to acquire the dominant Detroit Free Press from Gannett, its JOA partner, so that its own struggling Detroit News could be shut down. Alternatively, it is possible that Gannett could elect to buy out MediaNews. But it is far more likely that Gannett, a publicly held company, would like to unload the risk and distraction associated with owning a metro in the staggering Motown economy."
His post continues: "In buying Detroit, Singleton not only would get the opportunity to work his cost-cutting magic but he also would be doing a favor for Gannett, which is an investor in the MediaNews partnership that owns 15 dailies and a batch of weeklies in Southern California."
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Singleton might very well buy and merge the Detroit papers. But he won't call it the Detroit Free Press. A dedicated right-winger, he won't want to get rid of the News' arch-conservative editorial page. And he'll keep the leadership team he has in place in Detroit. He's also very much aware of brand loyalty in Detroit + how the News was screwed over by the 1989 JOA agreement. Sooo: It will be a Detroit News and Free Press, edited by Jon Wolman, the current editor of the Detroit News.
ReplyDeleteWhatever happens (if anything) one side will lose and my bet is it won't be Gannett.
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