Tucson Citizen closing up shop

Gannett also made "highly unusual" bidding rules to prevent the sale of the Sun to potential buyers.

http://gannettblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/tucson-justice-dept-investigating.html

 

We'd heard it was coming, but this sucks now that it's really happening. I know a lot of guys down there. Sure, it was a much smaller paper, but I'd argue that the staff down there did a much better job covering UA sports than the Arizona Daily Star ever did.

Good luck, all.

 

So let me get this straight. Gannett succeeds in convincing both Lee Enterprises and the Justice Dept. to allow an amendment to the JOA that allows the corporations to drop a requirement that both companies publish newspapers in Tucson through 2015. Then Gannett requires any potential bidders to agree that they will continue to print and publish the newspaper, without the new buyer being able to share in the ad revenues, etc., and having to incur all of the costs of printing and operating since the JOA was not included as part of the assets.

If it swims like a fish and talks like a fish, then it sure as hell is a smelly, stinky fish, right? And the Justice Dept. has yet to come to a conclusion that something is amiss?

Man, I need another Fat Tire!!!!

 

Sharing in the surviving paper's profits is expected unless the JOA has run out. It was the case in St. Louis and Miami even in the 1980s. When Cox agreed to fold the Miami News in 1988, K-R agreed to give Cox a share of The Miami Herald's profits until 2021. The Herald ran a major piece on the "killing of the Miami News." I think it ran in the Sunday mag.

 

I agree with every word you just wrote. This is awful.

 

Yeah Frank, but tell me this doesn't sound a lot more suspect, especially in light of those two revelations mentioned in two different articles -- the amendment allowing them to not have to continue publishing and then the separate requirement by Gannett that any potential buyer must continue publishing, virtually eliminating any chance of a sale happening. That simply shouldn't fly, IMHO.

 

I hope the Justice Department has some smart lawyers working on this and that they nail Gannett to the wall.

 

Well, we don't have to like it, but as for "suspect?" Gannett has a lot of experience in the dissolution of JOAs -- El Paso, Honolulu, Nashville (Cincinnati was a different case -- the JOA expired) -- swapping papers within an existing JOA (Detroit, Honolulu, Nashville), and buying and eventually killing a competitor (Green Bay) without antitrust penalties. Pretty sure Gannett knows how to get away with it.

 

Just saw this on BusinessWire and didn't see it mentioned anywhere ...

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=84662&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1288878&highlight=

Looks like Gannett is finally shutting it down in Tucson. Sounds like this is similar to the deal at the P-I. It's been lamented on here before, but it's sad that this stuff isn't surprising anymore.

 

The folks at the Citizen have been working with a blade over their head for two months, never knowing when it would end. It sucks. People deserve better than to be toyed with.

 

"The Tucson Citizen, Arizona's oldest newspaper, will print its last issue Saturday continuing with a "modified Web site" focused on opinion only.

There will be no news or sports reporting at www.tucsoncitizen.com, and the recently launched Metromix entertainment hub "will go dark," said Kate Marymont, vice president of news for Gannett Co., Inc., which owns the Citizen."

Thought that was interesting, that it's just going to be an opinion site. I don't know if that means they're just going to have syndicated columnists and/or their own or even - gasp - citizen bloggers.

This sucks, but I'm curious as to what they intend to turn the Web site into, especially considering they could still be rebellious and, you know, keep one or two writers on staff to actually do somereporting.