Second Largest Newspaper Holding Company Hits Skids — Another company that cheapened its product and wound up broke. The end is near for a lot more papers.
Affiliated Media Inc., the holding company for MediaNews Group Inc., which owns the Denver Post, on Friday filed a plan for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, the company announced.
MediaNews Group CEO William Dean Singleton had said on Jan. 15 that a filing was imminent.
Affiliated Media is the holding company for the MediaNews Group family of newspapers, the nation’s second-largest newspaper publisher by circulation. The company owns 54 daily newspapers — including the San Jose Mercury News, Salt Lake Tribune, Detroit News, St. Paul Pioneer Press and Los Angeles Daily News — and more than 100 non-daily newspapers, as well as websites, television and radio broadcasters that serve markets in 12 states.
what will we read …in the mourning… now?!?
Holy crap!!! There’s only two newspapers in this region(state) to begin with! The other is owned by the LDS’s who are all the sudden buying up downtown SLC real estate. And this, this is in contrast to previously articulated “policies” in response to l-known right-of-way and free-speech issues consequent to church-owned properties that ‘umbrella’ public spaces and thoroughfares.
We may be needing a lot of help soon. …Very serious about his. Don’t take it lightly. Our former governor is now ambassador to China.
Sorry about typos consequent of haste in post #2. Supposed changes in Church policies that came in reaction to concerns (litigations, really) over right-of-way and free-speech issues have apparently been *reversed* in recent weeks with LDS Church purchases of downtown SLC parcels. And now our only alternative newspaper is going under. This is very serious.
Strangely, although some are struggling, there seems to be some healthy papers in Canada in comparison.
Small town ones such as the Medicine Hat News seem to be doing okay as far as I know. People still seem to like to read a physical newspaper.
It may just be that Canadians are a few years behind U.S. trends or it may be we are more traditional and like to hang onto some of the old sources of news.
I’m not aware of any significantly sized Canadian cities that will be without at least one newspaper anytime soon… even if it might be merely a tabloid style one that concentrates more on the Sports section.
MediaNews Group owns The Detroit News (our evening paper), Gannett owns the Detroit Free Press(our morning paper).
Haven’t subscribed to either one for over 13 years now, stacking the old papers, recycling the old papers, I was sick of it.
I let all of my magazine subs expire also, for the same reason too. PC Mag GONE (pulled the pin and went digital), PC World GONE, Popular Mechanics still comes here but it’s a shell of its former self, more like a pamphlet now.
Wait till gasoline goes back over $4 and stay there, you’ll see more energy-intensive endeavors hit the wall.
@acryinshame
nick the rat I doubt you would be reading anything anyway. Seeing how you can’t spell.
Nick, don’t worry. Mouse wouldn’t know a pun if it put peanut butter on the trap.
It is also worth mentioning as all these fine papers bite the dust that Air America has gone down in flames, too.
Pro’lly Limbaugh’s fault…
The only people this affects, other than the employees which should have heard the train whistle in the distance, are baby boomers and older whom still hang onto to their tin funnel nostalgia.
Screw ’em I say. If they can’t adapt they become fodder.
Cursor_
#7, it could have been a clever pun. The savior will probably be digital subscription combos, much like cable TV. Pick five publications for $20 a month. Times change
Old media’s demise is a done deal. Their only hope is to merge with new media like the WSJ and NYT have done by offering their products on audible.com and online.
Then the WSJ was bought by Murdoch and Newscorp. The thing they are missing even more than money is control. Murdoch is trying to reassert control by buying up everything he can across channels. That way he can control what people think by shaping the news. Once that happens he can follow the example of Italy’s Berlusconi.
Unfortunately for him, they bought newspapers and TV channels first. They should have cornered the net by buying ISPs first because now he owns media that are waning in influence, which I think means it is too late to save “the paper.”
So, whats sanctimonious about being overtaken by new technology?
“Sanctimonious,” John? huh? No explanation necessary, there?
All I know is the Denver Post is the only decent paper in the state — and was so even when the Rocky Mountain News was around.
Newspapers are doing it to themselves – I recently had a relative killed in a car crash. The obituary in the paper cost $600 – and that was in the Fargo Forum (Fargo, ND). There was a mistake in the obit and to correct it would have cost another $600.
At this rate, newspapers won’t be able to afford their own obits.
I think these newspaper all decided to follow the Pied Piper like rats in the street instead of rethinking their business model and leveraging their strengths.
None of them seem to understand the concept that they are advertisers and good at that function.
Instead, they seek to increase the price of the paper, reduce circulation and restrict access to their product (lock down their web site).
Who in the history of mankind has that ever worked for?
We have two local papers one of which runs completely on add revenue. You don’t have to buy it. It also has a decent web site where you can find local news. I guess that’s how this is going to end.
I’m not so sure about radio either. What is the demographic of people that listen to radio and what are they listening to? The serials like the green hornet, the lone ranger, Amos and Andy, etc. are long gone though I still get a blast our of listening to some of the old recordings. Now you normally have unending music or talk radio.
what pond did this one land in
Chapter 11? So they want to reorganize. How is that going to help??
How are they going to change their operation to start to make money?
It’s hopeless for these guys.
Bye, bye! Newspapers as business model – printing day old news on dead wood – is yesterdays model. T
hey die because there is none that appreciate their services. The market has spoken; you don’t supply what the market needs. Very simple.
Emotionally it is sad to see that an old paper folds. But rationally, if you serve no purpose, good riddance!
If buggy whip companies considered themselves to be transportation companies instead of buggy whip manufacturing companies, they would be flourishing to this day.
RNG
Nelipot
mourning in the morning… ok my brain hurts now… come here mouse, i has cheeze 4 u!
I see I’m not the only one wondering what is so sanctimonious about MediaNews.
What will the Pommies use to wrap their Fish and Chips, should this happen in England?
Heading quickly for a world where NewsCorp owns every paper, sets the terms of every debate, invites discussion from people it likes, eventually manufacturing news to sell advertising. And the blog-o-sphere is simply an editorial commentary by charismatic pundits.
# 16 deowll:
“What is the demographic of people that listen to radio and what are they listening to?”
I always have the radio on in the car; I like to listen to the local public classical station. There’s also a great station with a very eclectic playlist run by a local high school; they’ll play almost anything! I also read our local paper every day, but then I’m _old_ — I actually remember listening to some of the radio programs you mention. Some of my favorites were the CBS mystery shows.
I would miss the old Merc (San Jose Mercury News). Some excellent Silicon Valley coverage there.
The internet age didn’t kill the newspaper/prinmt media, it simply stopped it from continuing its practice of printing half truths and out right lies and claiming them to be NEWS pieces.
The newspapers are dying by their own hands, teh same hands they have been using to feed BS to readers for years who before the internet had no clue just how much spin was in the news they were being given.
The alternative media like Radio and INternet blogs has taken off and surpassing the traditional newspaper/print media and even TV because both are far better at relaying the actual news even if it is with comments. I’d much rather hear the news with comments addded that I totally disagree with then hear what is portaryed as news that is actually majopryl spun opinion and propaganda.
I don’t see anything here about the Toronto airport.