We Need Newspapers
News comes today that the Blethen Maine Newspapers are for sale: viz. the Kennebec Journal, Waterville Sentinel and Portland Press Herald. The story was on the front page of the Kennebec Journal this morning. Having to print this particular story would be like me posting a blog entry consisting of my own obituary. The news is not good.
The Blethen family bought the Gannett (Maine, not the other Gannett) newspapers in 1998 for $200 million. Ten years on they will be lucky to get $100 million for them, according to the article. The new car I bought in 2001 has, I'm sure, lost half of its value since then, but somehow I don't think that's the investment model the Blethens had in mind when they bought these papers.
The company, like the entire newspaper industry, is facing declining circulation and ad revenues, especially from classifieds. A full page ad in the Kennebec Journal today from CEO Frank Blethen blames in part "disruptive technologies," by which I think he means the Internet, for foiling what used to be his license to print money. But some people, apparently none of them in the newspaper industry, have figured out how to make money from disruptive technologies, like these guys.
"In my fondest dreams," Blethen says in the article, the ultimate buyer "would be some well-heeled group of Mainers that care about local ownership." That's an ugly outcome. What that means is that these once-proud papers will be sold off piecemeal, probably to some bottom-feeding investors, whence they will eventually fall to a group of civic-minded financial "angels" who are willing to lose millions to make sure three Maine cities still have daily papers, much like the wealthy liberals who kept the old weekly Maine Times afloat for many years until it became clear the paper would never regain profitability, at which point it morphed unrecognizably into a glossy monthly magazine, and then folded for good. An unseemly end, as I said.
I admit to some schadenfraude (a German word meaning "shameful joy"; don't you love German?) on hearing this news. The sale of the papers back in 1998 was an occasion for much sanctimonious self-congratulations on the part of both the Blethen and the Gannett families, which was amply displayed by the many newspaper articles on the sale, in which the phony good feeling and Elks Lodge civic boosterism was meant to make the bitter pill of this sale go down easier for us plebs, the readers, disguising that this transaction was merely two mega-wealthy families trading huge assets and that the Gannetts, for all their noble stewardship of the papers--for which they received nothing more than the satisfaction of civic duty and generations of influence, wealth and prestige--were finally cashing out to an out-of-state company--at the right moment, we now see in hindsight.
But it's not all shameful joy here in Hollywood. We need newspapers. And the future of these are not assured.
The Blethen family bought the Gannett (Maine, not the other Gannett) newspapers in 1998 for $200 million. Ten years on they will be lucky to get $100 million for them, according to the article. The new car I bought in 2001 has, I'm sure, lost half of its value since then, but somehow I don't think that's the investment model the Blethens had in mind when they bought these papers.
The company, like the entire newspaper industry, is facing declining circulation and ad revenues, especially from classifieds. A full page ad in the Kennebec Journal today from CEO Frank Blethen blames in part "disruptive technologies," by which I think he means the Internet, for foiling what used to be his license to print money. But some people, apparently none of them in the newspaper industry, have figured out how to make money from disruptive technologies, like these guys.
"In my fondest dreams," Blethen says in the article, the ultimate buyer "would be some well-heeled group of Mainers that care about local ownership." That's an ugly outcome. What that means is that these once-proud papers will be sold off piecemeal, probably to some bottom-feeding investors, whence they will eventually fall to a group of civic-minded financial "angels" who are willing to lose millions to make sure three Maine cities still have daily papers, much like the wealthy liberals who kept the old weekly Maine Times afloat for many years until it became clear the paper would never regain profitability, at which point it morphed unrecognizably into a glossy monthly magazine, and then folded for good. An unseemly end, as I said.
I admit to some schadenfraude (a German word meaning "shameful joy"; don't you love German?) on hearing this news. The sale of the papers back in 1998 was an occasion for much sanctimonious self-congratulations on the part of both the Blethen and the Gannett families, which was amply displayed by the many newspaper articles on the sale, in which the phony good feeling and Elks Lodge civic boosterism was meant to make the bitter pill of this sale go down easier for us plebs, the readers, disguising that this transaction was merely two mega-wealthy families trading huge assets and that the Gannetts, for all their noble stewardship of the papers--for which they received nothing more than the satisfaction of civic duty and generations of influence, wealth and prestige--were finally cashing out to an out-of-state company--at the right moment, we now see in hindsight.
But it's not all shameful joy here in Hollywood. We need newspapers. And the future of these are not assured.
posted by Hallovian at 6:31 AM
3 Comments:
Sadder and sadder, the online content of the Blethen family of papers isn't even useful as a fish wrapper. Give me the "Courier Gazette" anyday.
How about a link? I need Maine readers.http://welovesaipan-bigsoxfan.blogspot.com/
Family-owned papers are more and more rare, and locally owned papers rarer still. The best the Journal could hope for is an investor who has not only business sense, but cares about good journalism. It sounds like these papers are still making a decent amount of coin, which means someone will snap them up. Like Newsday, which is also about to be sold, per rumor, papers that have little or no competition in their markets remain good investments -- if the investors are willing to adjust their expectations down from the salad days of decades ago. It's not time to despair yet over your local papers. They're not folding, and no one has announced any staff cuts. Every newspaper that stays in existence despite market downturns and doesn't decimate its staff is a victory for journalism and for democracy. So keep reading them and supporting them, and keep the rest of us updated on what's happening.
try the New Hampshire Gazette for a lively newspaper. the Oldest in the US of A -and probably the best and most truthful.
start stockpiling firearms and ammo. that's the only real hope for any of us. the zombies are coming. in one form or another.
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