Friday, February 11, 2011

Updated: MediaNews denies consolidation report

[Updated at 8:56 p.m. ET with the following statement by MediaNews Group CEO William Dean Singleton, denying a report earlier today by the Newspaper Guild.]

The Newspaper Guild on Friday issued a press release referring to a casual phone conversation I had with Bernie Lunser, president of the Guild, concerning the future of the newspaper industry and how newspapers can better serve their readers in print, online and on mobile products.

Contrary to the assertions made in the release, there are no plans for "national consolidation" of MNG's editing processes.

While we constantly assess better ways to serve our readers in this changing and uncertain world, including the Guild in these considerations are not a part of those assessments.

The irresponsible Guild press release is a perfect example of why we don't.

There is no future for any of us if we continue to live in the past. Someone should tell that to the Guild.

-- Dean

MediaNews is one of Gannett's business partners. It controls 54 newspapers, including The Detroit News, plus dailies in Northern California, Texas and Pennsylvania that it owns in partnership with GCI.

4 comments:

  1. Jim, you have been punked. MediaNews has already come out and discredited this report.

    Do you ever bother to confirm any information, or do you just run willy-nilly with rumors? Great job, guy. Hard to believe you are out of journalism.

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  2. That's why I attributed the story to the source. Getting punked is entirely different.

    ReplyDelete
  3. In other words, it's the source's fault you had a headline saying the company was going to do something that it now denies.

    Splendid. Now I can click on your too-clever punked link. Let me guess: It's you spinning some Gannett move.

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  4. Given Billy Dean's track record and the bankruptcy, I believe the guild leaders. Wait and see.

    ReplyDelete

Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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