Strib sold

I disagree...
Not true... many people will care...

 

This seems like extremely bad news. One of the better newspapers in the country, sold to a private equity firm?

 

As its lone media property...
That 25 percent profit margin seems like it won't be enough, soon...

 

So, let's see if I get this right. McClatchy dumps the ST for less than 50 cents on the dollar just before the end of the tax year to ease the burden of the capital gains taxes they will have to pay on all those papers they sold. The equity firm jumps in like someone on Flip This House getting a great deal with the idea of striping it down and re-selling a leaner ST in a few years. So, for being a strong performer for a growing company the ST employees and kick in the ass and get to worry about their jobs. Am I getting this?

 

According to the press release, when MC bought the Strib from Cowles, there were also magazines that went with it. Not so now.
But yeah, pretty mich you are correct sir...

 

Excellent, excellent newspaper. I hope this doesn't become another Dallas. I only ask McClatchy this: Why?

 

oh, you mean his close personal friends?

the ownership change will have no impact on sid. the public loves him for some reason.

the reason i think ugly times are ahead in the twin cities is that although the pipress is a slowly sinking ship, the union contract at the strib is the "specific" thing cited by the mcclatchy CEO, so it'll soon be a one-paper town -- and a shitty one at that. basically everyone in the newsroom has been there 15-20 or more years and makes a huge salary. which is nice for reporters but not so good for management.

 

Glad someone figured it out...
His close personal friends and "The Brotherhood" have kept him around...

 

Oh Lord, are they going to find "fat" to trim in the newsroom there.

Turnover is roughly zero percent.

Yikes.

 

I don't see how the Twin Cities will become a "one paper town" when it's two towns. No way in hell either the Strib or Pioneer Press goes under. That'd be like the DMN or FWST folding in the Metroplex.

 

so what it it's two towns? it's one media market.

have you read the PP lately? it's a shell of its former self. that's being kind. i'd say 40-50 veteran reporters and editors have left in the last 3-4 years. some are replaced but many aren't. many of the replacements are young and inexperienced and unable to compete with their more veteran competitors across the river. it doesn't have the resources to compete with the strib. if you pick up the print product house ads outnumber paid ads more than half the time. the strib does a fine job covering st. paul and the east metro. there is simply no reason to subscribe to it over the strib; it does nothing better. it does nothing to differentiate itself. it has almost no institutional memory and will soon have even less because it has so few veterans. ultimately there's no reason to advertise in it either. eventually it will fade away unless the new strib ownership does something radical. i give the pp until 2011 and i've been saying that for the past two years. it's sad.

 

I was just thinking the same thing. Knight Ridder whittled the PP so badly under its ownership that the Strib basically took over the Twin Cities. The Strib's zoned editions on Wednesdays do an effective job of covering the suburbs.

The DMN and FWST can exist within the Metroplex, although Fort Worth is rapidly becoming the paper to watch due to all of the DMN's hacking and slashing.