Say Goodbye To The Greenwich Time And Stamford Advocate
Quotes:
"The Connecticut Post has a long and rich history, and Hearst is committed to continuing that tradition," Hearst Newspapers President George B. Irish said in a statement.
Questions:
Does this mean that the Greenwich Time editor will stop falling asleep at the switch?
Will some of the people that Media News Group fired can get their jobs back? Will some of the CT Post people who were responsible for those people losing their jobs will finally get THEIR jobs removed? Will this mean there will actually be news in the Greenwich Time?
Answer To All The Questions:
Doubtful, but one can dream.
The Story:
Hearst takes over management of Advocate/Greenwich Time
Comment: BTW, The Company also buys Connecticut Post
Greenwich Time
Hearst Corp. has taken over management of Greenwich Time and The Advocate and purchased the Connecticut Post and seven weekly newspapers from MediaNews Group Inc., the companies announced Friday
The weeklies Hearst acquired are the Darien News-Review, Greenwich Citizen, Fairfield Citizen-News, New Canaan News-Review, New Milford Spectrum, Norwalk Citizen-News and Westport News. Hearst also assumed management of The News-Times, a daily newspaper in Danbury....
...Hearst bought The Advocate and Greenwich Time in November for $62.4 million. Since the buildings were not part of the deal, both newspapers, along with The Advocate's Norwalk office, relocated earlier this year. The Connecticut Post was owned by MediaNews....
Please Read The Full Greenwich Time Story
We Hate To Say We Told You So,
But We Told You So....
Please See:
05/13/08 - Heard it Through The Grapevine - Local Newspaper May Be Living On Borrowed Time
The Money Losing And Subscriber Losing Greenwich Time May Became A Local News Bureau Of A Bridgeport News Paper.
Hearst is already printing The Stamford Advocate, The Norwalk Advocate and the The Greenwich Time at the Connecticut Post plant in Bridgeport.
Please Also See:
NewsTimesLive.com
BRIDGEPORT - Hearst Corp. announced Friday it has bought the Connecticut Post and seven non-daily newspapers from Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc. for an undisclosed amount. MNG Chief Executive Officer Dean Singleton made the announcement to Post staff in the newsroom. It was eight years after Singleton's privately held company bought the Post and five non-dailies from Thomson Newspapers Inc. Hearst is also taking control of The Advocate of Stamford, Greenwich Time, The News-Times of Danbury and the New Milford Spectrum, which MNG had been managing, through a joint operating agreement. The combined circulation of Hearst's Connecticut properties is 137,000 daily, 151,000 on Sunday and 53,000 non-daily. Brooks Community Newspapers' seven weeklies, the Darien News-Review, Greenwich Citizen, Fairfield Citizen-News, New Canaan News-Review, Norwalk Citizen-News and Westport News are part of the deal. The Post and the Brooks newspapers employ 350 people. Singleton said Friday the sale of the Connecticut properties, which Hearst already owned a 40 percent stake in, was to shore up MNG's balance sheet. "We are selling the Connecticut Post to Hearst and paying down a lot of debt," Singleton said. New Canaan resident Frank Bennack Jr., Hearst vice chairman and chief executive officer, welcomed staffers of the Post and non-dailies to Hearst. Bennack has returned to the helm of Hearst after a brief retirement. He has led the privately held company for more than 23 years. He said the Post is joining a strong company that doesn't have much debt. He also said Hearst will continue to be a partner and investor in MNG. George Irish, president of Hearst Newspapers, said the value of the deal to buy out MNG's interest in the Connecticut newspapers would not be disclosed. Both companies are private. The Hearst Corp. traces its beginning to 1887, but George Hearst won much of the fortunes that founded the future media empire in western mines, including the Comstock Lode of Nevada. His son, William Randolph Hearst, took over the family's newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner, from which the family built a large media business. Today, Hearst is a more diversified company with ownership of 16 daily and 49 weekly newspapers as well as interest in 43 daily and 72 non-daily newspapers. It is the publisher of magazines, including Cosmopolitan¸ and the company's Hearst-Argyle Television company has 29 TV stations and an interest in ESPN. Bennack said he is familiar with the Post and despite the tough environment insisted "newspapers will be viable as far as the eye can see." He said they are too important to the country to be allowed to go extinct, as some industry pundits suggest. "Newspapers play a vital role in American society," he said. "We're not about to give up on that. Who will watch city hall?" Robert L. Laska, president and publisher of the Post, said the Hearst Corp. will add "an exciting new dimension to the Connecticut Post family of publications and media Web sites. "We look forward to continuing the success that the Connecticut group has achieved in its long history, as we confidently face the challenges of the future," Laska said. The Connecticut Post was established in 1883 as the Bridgeport Post. It was family owned for years until the Pfriem and Flicker families sold it to Thomson in 1988. Thomson changed the name to Connecticut Post in 1992 and sold it to MNG in 2000. MNG, the nation's fourth-largest newspaper company, has been struggling with debt accumulated from acquisitions of a few years ago. One deal in particular was valued by some media sources at $1 billion for MNG to acquire several newspapers in California, including the Oakland Tribune and San Jose Mercury News. Standard & Poor's had recently downgraded MNG's rating to CCC. But Singleton and Hearst executives also noted this is a difficult time for the entire newspaper industry. Newspapers across the nation are grappling with lower ad revenues and circulation from its print editions while revenues from Web editions have not been able to make up that gap as competition in the digital world heats up and newspapers go online. "The newspaper industry has gone through some tough times," Singleton said. "We believe the future of newspapering is bright, but the transition will continue to be painful." Other newspapers have announced cuts in staff and other cost savings maneuvers in recent months. Singleton pledged to continue to read the Post and he complimented the work of all departments of the newspaper. "We have been so proud," he said.
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