Dean Singleton, exit, stage left

So you're saying it's only a matter of time before we can read the same Lakers story in the Orange County Register that we can read in the Daily News, Long Beach Press Telegram, Pasdena Star News and the San Bernardino Sun. (Not to mention the SGV Tribune, Inland Valley DB, Whittier Daily News). Oh, and see the same photos and read the same blog posts. Joy! At the the Riverside PE will give LA some variety.

 

I don't think OCR is sharing with LANG because LANG stopped traveling with the Dodgers when they laid off Tony Jackson. Dodgers/Angels were shared between OCR and Riverside last season. I don't know what they do about offseason stories.

 

It might be that OCR gets him ...
This was posted Tuesday ...

http://reporter-g.blogspot.com/2011/01/medianews-and-freedom-are-thinking.html


This was posted today ...

http://reporter-g.blogspot.com/2011/01/whats-ahead-for-medianews-and-whats.html

 

Dean Singleton leaving may be a case of be careful what you ask for. According to Newsonomics three employees from Alden Global Capital are going onto the Media News board. Alden specializes in distressed companies and also has interests in Freedom and the Philadelphia Daily News. Alden is controlled by a billionaire named Randall Smith. If you analyze this situation by applying the golden rule -as in he who has the gold rules- it seems that Randall will be calling the shots instead of Singleton.

What does Randall think about the integral role local journalism plays in the community? I don't know but suspect he will make Singleton look like Sulzberger.

 

The problem is Dean for years barked about the integral role journalism played in the community, then did very little to support it at every paper not named the Denver Post. How many Lean Dean papers wound up in better shape with the proper amount of tools to do the job after he took over? And of course anyone said anything about it he told them to quit their crybabyin' and man up.

 

The idea of merging all these companies, while intriguing, would run into massive anti-trust issues.

 

http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/01/the-shakeup-at-medianews-why-it-could-be-the-leadup-to-a-massive-newspaper-consolidation/

 

If newspapers have become unprofitable, why would anyone want to buy them?

 

Why are people investing in newspapers? Newspapers have almost always made money at the operating level. But for tax reasons or to buy additional properties newspaper companies loaded up on debt. When revenues declined by 50% even if newspapers cut thier cost by enough to keep expenses below revenues -and most companies have- they could not service the debt. Now with bankruptcy wiping away most of the debt at Media News, Freedom, et. al hedge funds are coming in hoping for a rebound in print or hoping newspapers actually figure out how to make money on the internet.

And my previous post was not meant to praise Singleton for a committment to community journalism. I was being sarcastic. But things could always be worse. And I suspect they are about to get worse when the hedge fund takes over. I think the Longmont paper will be merged into the Boulder Daily Camera. Boulder is about 15 miles southeast of Longmont. And the Loveland paper somehow gets merged in the Fort Collins paper. Loveland and Fort Collins have pretty much grown into each other. Gannett owns the Fort Collins paper but I think it is printed at the Denver Post plant. I think Gannett and Media News will work something out.

We'll see.