Cox NC papers sold to Cooke Communications...

didn't see this anywhere...

http://www.reflector.com/scene-around/cox-enterprises-to-sell-reflector-other-nc-papers-to-cooke-communications-728192.html

some friends told me earlier in the day...been on the block for quite a while, all the way back to before i was let go by the reflector.

so what is in store for these papers now that Cooke has its hands on them?

 

Put it this way: The last time I saw the Key West Citizen (which Cooke saved from Thomson with the money from the Redskins sale), I wanted my change back from the box.

If I want news from or while I'm in the Keys, I read the McClatchy-owned Keynoter (a twice-weekly paper) or one of its sister papers down there.

Sucks for John Jr. ... he has to move from Key West to North Carolina.

 

What was wrong with it?

 

Lack of local content on the inside pages. Lots of wire used as filler. Just not good.

Maybe they'll do better when they're not downisland.

 

Which is funny given that the story published on Rocky Mount's website claims their emphasis is on "local, local, local." But how often is that mantra spouted, then completely ditched when it becomes convenient to cut some people and wire out more of the section?

Best to the good folks in Greenville, Rocky Mount and Elizabeth City is addition to the non-dailies now under this umbrella throughout Eastern North Carolina. And while I know compliments haven't been showered upon Cooke, it HAS to be better than either Heartland or Paxton, two chains which have slashed and burned worthwhile publications throughout North Carolina.

 

Seems like Cox is getting desperate to get rid of these smaller publications. 11 months without a sale (except, apparently, a couple of the smaller Texas papers), and now Waco, Grand Junction and the N.C. papers have been sold.

I'm gonna guess Cox is basically to the point where they'll take anything for them. I did see third-hand somewhere that Seaton paid about 1/3 of what Cox wanted for Grand Junction.

 

I love this line:

“Newspapers are not dead. They’re not even ill,” John Kent Cooke told the group. “I’m not worried in the least about the future of this business, particularly here in North Carolina. It’s going to be difficult at times, but we will be successful because we have the same attitude that the Cox people have and that is we’re going to concentrate on our local news....”

I agree that newspapers aren't dead, but when you choke them off at the vine (i.e. refuse to invest ANYTHING in your product), they might as well be ... good luck to the folks down east...

 

The Reflector is my hometown paper. Good luck all.