Another round of layoffs in Philly

One of the country's best boxing writers, Bernard Fernandez, wrote his final piece today. And more details are emerging about the impending cuts. uuugh!!!!
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120327_35_more_jobs_in_jeopardy_at_papers__website.html?ref=more-like-this

 

Finally some good news to report. John Mitchell, who was cut in the latest round of cutbacks, is back with the paper. He will be covering the Sixers at home and doing other things.
As for the papers, they could trade hands Monday for the fifth time in six years.
Several powerful local businessmen are trying to close a deal to buy The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News from New York hedge funds.
Cable TV mogul H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest, the group's chairman, told The Associated Press an announcement could come Monday.
His partners include powerful New Jersey Democrat George Norcross III and former New Jersey Nets owner Lewis Katz. The price is expected to be less than $70 million.
The group has an exclusive option to bid for Philadelphia Media Network, which also operates the Philly.com website and a weekly sports publication.
The sale comes as 45 people are closing out their careers at the company this week. They are the latest group taking buyouts or being laid off as the newspapers deal with industry-wide declines in advertising and circulation in the digital era. The cutbacks include 40 newsroom jobs.
And the new owners could seek more cuts sooner rather than later, according to a memo obtained by the Daily News.
According to a recent letter of intent obtained by the Daily News, the sale would include $200,000 to fund severance pay for an additional 35 people, and $500,000 to pay for the departure of senior managers. Some key officers would remain, the memo said. It's unclear if they include publisher Greg Osberg, who was criticized by newsroom employees for allegedly censoring stories about the sale.
The March 20 letter of intent puts the sale price at about $60 million, the Daily News reported.
That's a fraction of the company's $515 million purchase price in 2006, or even the $139 million creditors paid at a 2010 bankruptcy auction. The hedge-fund creditors include Alden Global Capital and Angelo Gordon.

 

New owners for Philly.
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20120402_Local_group_to_buy_Phila__Media_Network_for__55_million.html

 

$55 million.

In 2006, the same newspapers sold for $562 million.

 

At that rate of decline, I'll be able to buy them in 2030.

 

There will only be one publication to buy then. The Daily News masthead says Philadelphia Daily News. The People's Paper. An Edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

 

John does a terrific job & this really was great news. Shame he had to go through the experience of getting laid off before he was re-hired, but he's a class act, works hard, and asks great questions. Glad he's back.

 

John, like you Reuben, is one of the good ones in this screwed up business. It's obvious the paper has seen better times. No one knows the future and no one wants to see any more layoffs. However, I don't think the bleeding has stopped. The investors will want to see a return, no doubt a quick one, which will probably and unfortunately mean personnel moves.

 

Found this to be interesting.
Katz said the $55 million purchase price is the same amount Walter H. Annenberg received when he sold The Inquirer and Daily News to Knight Newspapers Inc. in 1969. (On an inflation-adjusted basis, Annenberg's $55 million would be worth about $341 million today.)

Ken Doctor, a news-industry analyst with Outsell Inc., said the prices paid for daily newspapers recently are largely one-tenth what they would have been in 2000.

As for what to expect from a new group of local owners, one observer looked to the past. "It's a back-to-the-future moment. Look, I'm talking to you from the Annenberg School of Journalism," said Gabriel Kahn, a professor at the University of Southern California. "We should not be cynical about people in the local community who want to own this asset."

Though large newspaper chains were built over decades and private-equity firms have bought up media assets for pennies on the dollar more recently, "they coincided with the decline of the industry," Kahn said. Recent purchases of the Omaha World-Herald by Warren Buffett and the San Diego Union-Tribune by a California real estate developer echo a time when owning newspapers was a path to wealth, he said.

One problem today: Metro newspapers still depend on print advertising for more than 80 percent of their revenue, Doctor said. At 14.5 percent annual growth, digital advertising is growing faster than television, radio, and other types of media. But daily newspapers are only capturing 10 percent or less of the national digital-advertising pie, he said.

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20120403_Local_investors_buy_Inquirer__Daily_News__website.html?page=2&c=y