Gannett acquiring papers?

Very interesting article on the sale of the DFM properties (Denver Post, etc.). This little nugget buried in the story? Gannett will take control of the papers in York, Pa., among others.

Newsonomics: A coast-to-coast newspaper shuffle is taking shape » Nieman Journalism Lab

 

Gannett stock got a decent little bump today, but I have no idea if that's related. At $37.39, we're not far off from $40 - another benchmark where I sell another fist full of shares.

 

Can they have Snickers and Mountain Dew now?

 

Looks like the slash and burn strategy is actually working. Yay.

 

It will be interesting to see how Gannett newspapers getting spun off will impact how they're run. I always felt a lot of the "initiatives" were designed to sucker Wall Street and boost the stock. I'm sure stock price will be the primary directive still, but perhaps not to the extent it was before. But you know there will another round of cuts to pay for the acquisitions before the end of the year.

 

Another round? It's only April. Gannett can fit in three rounds of layoffs between now and December.

 

Another interesting and I believe ominous nugget from the story is that the Detroit News was not included in the sale and a purchaser still needs to be found.

And this is strictly conjecture. But Gannett owns the Free Press. When Gannett bought the Pennsylvania and southwestern properties did they buy their way out of the JOA. Let's say that Gannett threw in an extra 10 million to terminate the JOA. The value to Gannett would be that if it lead to the demise of the News then Detroit becomes a monopoly and the Free Press more profitable.