Tronc buys Virginian-Pilot for $34 million

Story this morning in the Daily Press, across the water from Norfolk

 

Can Tronc sell the office building of one of the papers? That would probably allow them to recover much of their investment.

Which is another way of saying the market for newspapers really sucks.

 

Pilot, I believe, owns its building. Daily Press left its long-time HQ a few years ago, sold it to a private company, now leases newsroom/ad space in a commercial development. Pilot owns its own printing building, Daily Press newspapers are printed in Richmond.

 

I’m fascinated, if only because I grew up reading the Pilot. Very interested to see how the inevitable consolidation works.

 

I will be interested to see what happens to the printing plant. Will Tronc move the printing of the Daily Press to the Pilot plant or close it and move all production to Richmond? The former would indicate some commitment to a local print product while the latter would indicate that Tronc is following a liquidation strategy.