A sweeping new change that could affect Detroit arises in this uncertain era for print journalism.
"A hedge fund-backed newspaper company with 10 properties in Michigan and a reputation for painful cost-cutting is seeking to purchase Gannett Co., publisher of the Detroit Free Press," the Associated Press reports, citing a Wall Street Journal story that only subscribers can see.
MNG Enterprises, better known as Digital First Media, holds 7.5 percent of Gannett's stock and has been rebuffed repeatedly by the company when it has approached it about a sale.
Digital First owns the Macomb Daily, Oakland Press and Dearborn Press & Guide. In addition to the Free Press, Gannett owns several newspapers in Michigan, including Port Huron's Times Herald and the Battle Creek Enquirer. . . .
The Wall Street Journal report said Digital First plans to offer to buy Gannett for $12 per share, nearly a quarter above its closing share price Friday of $9.75.
► Update: Digital First confirms that bid in a media release from Denver on Monday morning.
Facebook photo by Jim Schaefer
Digital First made headlines last year for laying off about a third of the Denver Post's newsroom staff shortly purchasing the struggling paper. Its biggest shareholder is Alden Global Capital LLC, a New York hedge fund that invests mainly in distressed companies. "Hedge-fund vultures," says a Columbia Journalism Review headline above.
Robert Huschka, executive editor at the Free Press from 2015-17, reacts on Twitter: "My friends — and family — at @freep are in my thoughts. They continue to do tremendous work amid tremendous disruption. What you all do matters."
Metro Detroit media analyst Matt Friedman, co-owner of Tanner Friedman communications agency in Farmington Hills, waves this warning flag Monday morning in a blog post:
Gannett employees are already on edge. A combination of buyouts and layoffs are coming any day now. Layer on top of that the anxiety of being bought by Digital First and you should understand the extreme anxiety that will sweep over newsrooms and back offices alike.
If this deal happens, the radio deals of the ’90s that left Clear Channel as the consolidator of the business that made hundreds of local radio stations little more than computerized music boxes loaded with commercials could look downright altruistic.
In Michigan, for example, if this deal happens, one company would also own the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News (and the Joint Operating Agreement that keeps both open), the suburban dailies known as the Oakland Press, Macomb Daily and the Daily Tribune and the legacy suburban weeklies the Observer and Eccentric newspapers.
Also, one company would own dailies within 100 miles of Detroit -- the Lansing State Journal, the Port Huron Times-Herald and the Livingston County Daily Press. What are the chances all would operate separately at the current thin staffing levels? Would they all become one skeleton crew operation? That has to be the fear today.
What are the chances these properties, however combined, would invest in investigative reporting? Include robust business coverage? Take the time to allow feature writers to explore topics outside of spot news? Include perspective based on informed, reported opinion?
