Seattle area daily folds

King County Journal to close

By ANDREA JAMES
P-I REPORTER

The King County Journal will put out its last issue on Jan. 21, the newspaper's new owners told employees at a meeting Thursday.

Black Press Ltd., a Canadian publisher, bought the Journal and its nine sister publications in November from Kent-based Horvitz Newspapers Inc. for an undisclosed amount. The new owners had told employees that crucial mistakes made under the paper's old management, particularly a decision to cut the marketing budget, had sealed its fate.

Circulation of the Journal, which has been losing money since 1994, has fallen to 39,100. It is the region's fifth-largest daily paper.




http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/297601_journal28ww.html

 

That sucks. Bad.

 

Why would they buy the chain and then fold the biggest paper? I don't understand why someone would pay a bunch of money so they can fold a paper.

 

Maybe they wanted the profitable weeklies and the daily was bringing them down. Black is the same guy who bought the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and the Akron Beacon-Journal.

The daily always had a marginal existence. The Kent and Bellevue dailies combined, I think, in the 1990s.

 

I'm sure there's also some sort of positive tax thing for closing an unprofitable division. Still, it sucks giant donkey balls.

 

Yes, because we know current newspaper management, across the board, is impeccable.

 

DyePack, it was really never a successful business, did everything on the cheap, did not make a profit for many years. Hard to believe the current owners screwed up a viable product in two months.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/274538_horvitz20.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003072505_horvitz20.html

 

Too bad to hear. Some excellent people at that paper.

The problems had little to do with Black, as I understand it. The previous owner made a string of poor decisions that screwed up the paper beyond repair.

 

Lots of places are making a sow's ear out of a silk purse as we speak.

Just off the top of my head: Tribune Co. and L.A. Times. Gannett and the Indianapolis Star. Dallas. Baltimore. Lee and some of its recent acquisitions.

 

Doesn't seem to apply here, however.

 

Big news at two papers in three days that hits close to home at my shop, plus a before Christmas scale-back at another. Damn, it's a tough Christmas/New Years for these folks.

 

Did another paper fold or something?