Another strategic acquisition by the Evil Empire

April 13, 2007
By Billy Dennis

Another downstate newspaper has fallen into GateHouse Media’s clutches:

McLEAN, Va. (AP) – Gannett Co., America’s largest newspaper publisher, announced Thursday it is selling four of its 90 U.S. dailies to New York-based GateHouse Media Inc. for $410 million.The four papers are the Rockford Register Star, a 65,000-circulation daily in Illinois; the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y., a 43,000-circulation daily; the Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, W.Va., a 30,000-circulation daily; and the Norwich Bulletin, a 26,000-circulation daily in Connecticut.

The newspapers will be among the largest in the GateHouse group, which includes 84 daily papers in 19 states.

I wonder how long before GateHouse makes a play for the Bloomington and Decatur newspapers. Or the Sun-Times up in Chicago. It’s their strategy, apparently, to become THE ONLY newspaper in Illinois.

Meanwhile, GateHouse has started screwing with employee benefits at the Peoria Journal Star. The newsroom learned a day or two before the Big Takeover that their 401(k) plans were no longer being managed by Vanguard, and have been switched so some lesser known and, in some minds, less desirable company.

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3 Responses to “ Another strategic acquisition by the Evil Empire ”

  1. Sam Bush on April 13, 2007 at 8:01 am

    They’re doing it all with borrowed money. Servicing that debt (a $960 million line of credit) and trying to maintain the promised 6.5 percent dividend return mean there will be tremendous pressure to hold costs down. This could be a house of cards.

  2. JS retiree on April 13, 2007 at 10:57 am

    The non-union employees also immediately will have no more defined benefit pensions. They do keep the pensions earned under Copley and before. A memo says most other benefits will stay in place for now.

  3. John Johnson on April 13, 2007 at 7:13 pm

    I’ve worked at the Rockford Register Star in a Production field quite some time and am scared out of my pants at the moment. I made good money with Gannett, but suspect will fall off a cliff in the near future.