Gannett, Gatehouse talking merger

Gatehouse-Gannett gets approved and then Sinclair is free to buy Tegna. It’s mega merger mania, under the guise of saving the near-dead local news biz.

 

Gannett no longer owns TV stations, so the FCC has no jurisdiction.

 

The decline of media marketshare for newspapers, the availability of other avenues to advertise is what led to the relaxed ownership rules for TV.

 

Newsonomics: It’s looking like Gannett will be acquired by GateHouse — creating a newspaper megachain like the U.S. has never seen

I fear for my friends in Detroit who are working without a contract

 

We will see media ownership concentration very soon, as the FCC has already held a public comment session for its proposal to raise the number of tv stations one company can own. I don’t think DOJ or the FTC will oppose Gatehouse-Gannett because the companies likely will argue that they cannot survive as stand-alone companies.

 

If Gatehouse buys Gannett and owns all the Gannett rags, will it be very profitable for Gatehouse to do what it normally does? Strip dozens of people from their jobs and cut pages, etc? Or would there be some other strategy that would make more $$. I'm not being normal fredrick here and mocking. I'm truly asking. How does Gatehouse handle the acquisition of all these newspapers. Perhaps Gatehouse will strike the jackpot just acquiring all that prime property from Gannett newspapers when they sell the buildings?

 

How much will revenue decline in the next quarter? 8 percent? Cut expenses 10 percent. Voila! profit.

 

Before we treat this merger as a done deal financing must be arranged. According to material Media News included with its first quarter financial results the company has cash plus undrawn credit lines of 56.1 million dollars. Gannett has a market cap of over a billion dollars. Ken Doctor, in his blog, says Gannett wants at least 800 million or so of the purchase to be in cash.

A company called Fortress has managerial control of Gatehouse but they have been cashing out. Someone is going to have to be found to invest a lot of money in newspapers for this merger to happen.

 

A huge Conglomerate, SoftBank, paid $3.3 billion in CASH for Fortress Investment Group last year. I don’t think financing Gatehouse-Gannett is going to be an issue. Is there any Gannett property left to sell? I think it sold off all excess land as it shut downtown newsrooms and printing plants.

 

Dan Gilbert bought the building which housed the Detroit News and Free Press
Today the staffs are in another building Gilbert owns
There's a small sign for the papers
The big sign is reserved for the sushi restaurant

 

Softbank certainly has the cash. But since they bought Fortress they have not put any money into Gatehouse. They do collect as much as 20 million dollars a year in management fees from the Gatehouse parent company.

Does Softbank want to put 800 million dollars of its cash into the newspaper industry? I think they would want to use other peoples money.

 

Gannett stock jumped 19 percent on the news

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today...teFwIlLekfuAqHCfR3MJ9KNsNiA5lJ8MkUEJiDzXyuR5w