The end is near for the Daily News and several other newspapers in the LA market owned by Denver’s Dean Singleton, the Denver media mogul
whose holding company is filing for bankruptcy.
Many papers in the MediaNews chain ran a company press release that buried the bankruptcy, saying Singleton’s holding company, Affiliated Media, had cut a deal with creditors holding nearly $1 billion in virtually worthless paper.
The deal will leave Singleton and his management still in charge but in control of only 20 percent of the stock. That will reduce the burden of debt to just $165 million, according to the Wall St. Journal, which the company’s value at $200 million and noted it is the seventh newspaper company to file for bankrupty, including the LA Times and Orange County Register.
The WSJ reported what the MediaNews announcement did not: What Singleton plans to do now.
“Singleton said he wanted to try to be the aggressor in merging newspapers…cleaning up the company’s debt load allows him to help lead newspaper-industry consolidation,” the WSJ reported.
“People in the industry have pointed to MediaNews’s paper in St. Paul
and the Star Tribune in Minneapolis as potential candidates for a
combination, as well as to adjacent papers in Southern California
published by MediaNews, Tribune Co. and Freedom Communications Inc.
There are potential regulatory hurdles to some newspaper combinations.”
When asked which newspapers might be combined, Mr. Singleton answered: “You can look at the map.”
If you look at the LA map you will see Singleton owns the South Bay Breeze, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the Whittier Daily News, Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Inland Valley Bulletin and San Bernardino Sun.
In the past 10 years, Singleton has tried to consolidate many operations of those papers, then backed off and tried various other strategies without success, hit hard by the decline of newspapers and more recently the recession.
The Hearst Corp. has been his principal benefactor over those years, buying the Daily News offices and other property from MediaNews and partnering in some newspapers. The WSJ, in reporting details about the bankruptcy, said Hearst had a $400 million stake.
What the implications of the deal and Singleton’s “merger” and consolidation” comments is this: There just isn’t enough money in newspapers to allow for competition, even the pretense of competition.
Hearst and MediaNews own almost all the newspapers in the Bay Area, for instance, from San Francisco to San Jose, Contra Costa and Oakland — all of them crippled by debt and falling revenue.
The entire LA market is owned by MediaNews and Tribune Co., throw in the bankrupt Register and you have Orange County with options on San Bernardino and possibly Riverside County.
It’s noteworthy that the San Diego Union-Tribune ,bought last year cheaply without heavy debt, is believed to have become profitable again after staff cuts and scaling spending to revenue..
That is the point. One paper without competition can thrive for a good many years even in the face of the Internet and the lack of younger readers. Two or more cannot.
So look for deals quickly.
It’s not a coincidence that the Times just took over printing the Wall St. Journal and others papers, forcing it to move to early deadlines as the Daily News did several years ago.
The predicate of the deals are already in place and you can be sure a lot of negotiations have been going on behind the scenes for a long time.
The only obstacle to the Times taking over the whole LA market and potentially salvaging the existing papers nameplates in localized editions is the U.S. Justice Department and laws against monopolies.
As someone who worked in corporate journalism for four decades and bristled against its homogenizing of the news, you can take my word for it that there hasn’t been much competitive journalism in newspapers for most of those years.
The corporate rules of journalism sucked the life out of newspapering, eliminating the kind of robust wars when there 12 newspapers in New York, eight in LA, six in Chicago with multiple owners and very different points of view.
One monopoly newspaper in major cities is sustainable and should have been done several years ago before staffs were gutted, talent and skill lost and the value to readers diminished.
Many will lament the loss of competition but competition has been an illusion for years and there should only be a brief mourning period for newspapers that lived a long and prosperous life and died of old age.
One healthy mainstream corporate newspaper can do things we will never be able to achieve on the Internet.
Most of all, they can provide a singular place for a shared experience available to everyone for an overview of who and what we are, an overview sanitized by the so-called objectivity they provide.
And they will have the resources to send teams of reporters out on the big stories like earthquakes and catastrophes of one sort or another and to develop staff with highly specialized skills and experience in specific areas.
The real question is whether they will provide an over-arching vision that will bring vast and complex metropolitan areas together.
For our city, that has always been the problem. The Times has failed to offer a vision of greater LA that is inclusive and reflective of the incredible complexity of the region, geographically, ethnically, demographically and all the social, cultural and political ways we differentiate ourselves.
That is where the value to readers and advertisers is — and where the money is for publishers.
Your comments refer to newspapers being able to send out reporters….. here in LA only press-release gatherers are sent out – nobody asks serious in-your-face yes-or-no questions to get solid information to share with the readers.
Has a reporter followed up on Mayour Tony’s watering violation – no. Has a reporter asked Alarcon about his real residence, then gone around and asked everyone on the block for verification – no (but a TV reporter has, thank you). Has a reporter asked Hahn about……. you get my point.
It’s no wonder that newspaper readership is falling off – there’s no there there!
I agree with Hank that our local newspapers do little more than reprint press releases, but clearly his problem with that is that he wants to “get Tony” and Alarcon only, and is just upset that the Slimes and Daily Snooze aren’t biased ENOUGH against them to suit him. (Though the Zahniser pieces on Alarcon, presented in a way to make Alarcon’s explanations look as ridiculous as possible, should please even him. Tony on the other hand, gets slams but with a hopeful note thrown in at the end.)
But where was Zahniser when Trutanich carpetbagged into San Pedro just to run, while he still owns his longtime house on Naples Canals Long Beach? Who’s living in that house now, is he still there or is it rented out, or “my son is living there” as Alarcon said. When did he first sign his own rental lease instead of living with his son in San Pedro?
Has anyone checked THIS out? No to the contrary, Steve Lopez wrote a lying piece about “San Pedro Nuch” that either deliberately or out of malfeasance never told us the truth. Why did carpetbagging only become an issue for the Slimes when they claimed (via choosing to reprint slanted criticisms) that Krekorian did it, and then when their pick Essel got slammed for the same thing (though they reprinted her PR story of how “I always knew I’d move back to the Valley” despite keeping her CD5 house) they said in their last and most twisted editorial that it was all a red herring issue?
It takes a blogger like one of the Griffith Park Wayist people to commit (so they say) to getting to the bottom of where Trutanich really lives – there’s a street address for the house he owns there, so someone with a bit of time and interest could stake it out, not as easily if it’s gated as Alarcon’s but the Times could get in easily if they weren’t anxious to avoid the issue altogether.
The Daily News lately has even done a better job than the Slimes, with the exception of Orlov who has his obvious pet favorites he quotes all the time and those he always slams, apparently getting HIS news from the biased blogosphere. And Ron, let’s face it, you’re as biased and opinionated as they come: you belong on a blog like this where you don’t have to pretend otherwise. The Weekly under Jill Stewart has become utterly, predictably slanted, also more in tune with the anti-Antonio blogosphere and militant, conservative homeowner groups than with unbiased “reporting.” They might as well just proclaim as much – even L A CityWatch, THE Neighborhood/Homeowner Group organ, tries to be more balanced.
So I don’t mourn the impending demise of any of the big papers in L A. If the Wall Street Journal or NY Times want to start something, they deserve a shot. They’re already expanding their west coast coverage to pick up the slack: and the financially desperate Slimes recently made a deal to turn the printing presses over to the WSJ so it can print ITS late paper and maybe give us more up-to-date info about LA than the LA Slimes can.
Anti trust and having to be an American citizen to own newspapers seems to apply to everyone except Rupert Murdock.
Remind me to stop reading you first thing in the morning. This would be grievous enough at any time of day, but at 05:39 it’s impossible to take.
@wet pants:
Aren’t you just too excited with anticipation? Unlike “wet hanky” you’re “wet pants”. Like any other Villaraigosa fanboy (gurl, really), you can’t pass up an opportunity to slam Trutanich… the Trutanich-hater that you are.
Any way you put it, the “Tony and Richy” show is as dirty as it comes, and has been for years. It’s takes repeated and blatant scofflaw activities, like Alarcon’s residence fables, to attract media attention. Denying this, or more succinctly minimizing this, only shows a corruption bias on your part.
IT’S CALLED A MONOPOLY!!! Of course, every socialist-communist government knows how to use them best. HA. But, that’s where we’re heading. And of course, the city’s liberals “never saw it coming”?
Probably not, such morons. Take Sam Zell, with his self importance. He actually believed that he could turn the LA Times around and make profitable. He never saw failure until it was upon him.
Who’s fault is it. THE JOURNALISTS. They were the enablers.
What should be done now. “The Journalists” should be banding together to create non-profit NEWS OUTLETS, to oppose the monopolies. But, most are now too fat, and are sitting at home eating bon-bons.
MayorSam Blog has discontinued. Was Higby bought off? Probably.
YOU SAY…
One monopoly newspaper in major cities is sustainable and should have been done several years ago before staffs were gutted, talent and skill lost and the value to readers diminished. HA, Bull….
Many will lament the loss of competition but competition has been an illusion for years and there should only be a brief mourning period for newspapers that lived a long and prosperous life and died of old age. HA HA, More Bull….
One healthy mainstream corporate newspaper can do things we will never be able to achieve on the Internet. HAHAHA. Look carefully and you’ll find successful Internet News Outlets out there.
Most of all, they can provide a singular place for a shared experience available to everyone for an overview of who and what we are, an overview sanitized by the so-called objectivity they provide.
SO YOU SAY. SPOKEN BY A TRUE COMMUNIST AT HEART.
…AND WHAT ABOUT THE IDEALIST YOUTH? Where are the Young Journalism Students? Don’t they understand what is happening? What are their thoughts on the situation? Do they not see it? They should be ripping the doors off the hinges in protest.
Oh, my bad. No hope there. They’ve been dumbed down long ago.
6:53, while I’m not even going to bother to respond to your anti-Trutanich BS, which has gone on and on beyond tiresome, your welcome for the Wall Street Journal, like it is an unbiased hero, is even more ridiculous. I now read that paper for my stock prices and nothing more. Their biased opinions ceased to matter long time back.
A note about young journalism students—I have met a few. What I have noticed is that some of them want to be famous and be on TV. I’m not saying there is anything inherently wrong with that. For a 2nd or 3rd generation of kids who have been raised on TV (and now the Internet), what do we expect? That they will have grown up without its influence? Are you kidding?
Then I have met some who like to write. They really love writing and rather than majoring in English, which while a noble major can be rather limiting, they chose journalism. Can they ask the hard questions? Do they have good news judgment? Do they know when they are being used by a politician or a business? Maybe—maybe not. They have to learn how to do that so they go to college.
Then, God love ‘em, I have met a few J-students and I just don’t know why they are there. They don’t seem to take it too seriously, they kinda goof around, they don’t do the work, and one hopes that they will mature with time! I have met the J-students who are there just because mom & dad want them to go to college.
But I have met a lot of J-students who give me hope for the profession. They are skilled if unpolished and seem unconcerned about the changes in the profession. They are young. They have lots of time to deal with the blows of the job market if they have to.
Ron, I appreciate all you do for the City, but being depressed about the demise of newspapers isn’t going to help anything.
Newspapers are going away. One of their big revenue streams was personal ads. Craigslist on the internet took that away…now people can buy and sell for free without the middleman. It’s actually a good thing as it supports freedom of people to exchange goods and services as a business.
Bad reporting didn’t help, either. Look at how the entrenched media here in L.A. behaves. They don’t cover half the stories they should. Competition from iPhones for instant news doesn’t help them, either.
Eventually, all papers will have to go online and have a totally different business model. Just the way it is. The old newspaper model is dead. Investor Warren Buffet sees the writing on the wall. He said he wouldn’t buy any newspaper company today at any price. That speaks volumes.
We just lost Mayor Sam, too.
7:17, answer the questions posed – you can’t because that would be damning. You hope to bury the truth and the lies that formed the basis of the campaign, but people can’t be fooled twice. They WILL get to the bottom of the real residence issue too, as his puppetmaster is using Alarcon as Exhibit B in his “look at me, how tough I am,” campaign kick-off. (Polanski’s high profile arrest at a film festival was A.)
You people are nothing but hypocrites who got by with getting the Times’ lapdogs to do the bidding of John Thomas, Shallman and the like. While Jim Newton is gone on the most part, teaching “journalistic ethics” at UCLA (a designation as ludicrous as Berger’s being in charge of “Ethics” for Trutanich, sort of fit together don’t they), the paper’s still in a tailspin and no one will miss it. Seems like the Newton-Rob Greene-Zahniser crew are going after the Democrats who dare to oppose Trutanich and expose his behavior, doing what these “reporters” won’t touch, while at the other extreme, we have the Times Tribune acting as parent company to KTLA putting out a silly fluff piece about Tony V and KTLA’s Lu Parker. What an absurd excuse for a big-city paper!
The vile slanders and lies and unfounded defamations that have come out on your Nuch’s behalf against numerous people, public and private, including from his righthand man David Berger, are utterly shocking. Had the Times been doing its job it would expose this behavior just as Zahniser searches out any excuse to attack the “other side.” AEG’s one of the few who’s had the guts and money and standing to say, “put up or shut up” if he’s going to go around defaming his company for 6 months or more. Anyone who’s still defending this behavior is reprehensible. This blog naming him “man of the year” is a joke no one bought or picked up on. Except maybe the MetNews owned by conservative Republican activist Roger M. Grace.
Good riddance to Mayor Sam, which realized too late how it’s been used by “certain” politicians and campaign consultants but not before doing significant damage to the local body politic and lowering the level of “discourse” by turning itself into an anti-Antonio/Huizar etc. factory and Trutanich slime organ and home for the likes of Zuma Dogg before becoming himself the victim of what he’d encouraged when Zuma did it to others. (Mr. Dogg is absurdly claiming that HE was too high-brow for it, and even for Trutanich, who he alleges promised him a job telling him “you’re the best thing that ever happened to me” a year ago and then reneged right after the election, claiming Zuma’s not high brow enough for him to associate with in public. THAT is the level Mayor Sam dragged us all down to – near the end there seems to have been some glimmering of self-awareness of this.
I hope Higby, if he’s serious about his mission, has a real epiphany before and if he returns in a new incarnation.)
1:42, you are in a class by yourself.
Ron you need to update your links to other sites, start with removing defunct Joseph Mailander and adding Griffith Park Wayist where “mulholland terrace” gave you a nice nod in the thread noting the demise of Mayor Sam. This blogger saying your only negative is not being “reckless” enough — ha, ha, don’t let it go to your head, believe me, you’re reckless with the facts enough depending on your subject. Kind of big of him though even when he’s on opposite sides of the Carmen Trutanich issue.
It’s a Griffith Park/ eastside blog on the whole but has taken up some of the slack and its bloggers vow to try to keep the tone civil and offer more than one point of view, which would be a welcome change from that other one. Fact that there isn’t ONE blog owner and currently no one with the keys to the kingdom who needs a tinfoil hat, makes this more likely.
You also got a mention today in L A Observed on this thread. That WOULD be something, the little Daily News’ group taking over and becoming more mighty than the once untouchable L A Times.
Griffith Park Wayist is too snide & lacking in citywide issues, other than to critique Trutanich which would indicate their love of the status quo. That is a non-progressive blog, and of no interest to people who want and are willing to work for positive changes in the city.
3:58, you’re critiquing a critique of Trutanich as “non-progressive” and implying that supporting him is “progressive?” How much of that medical weed are you smoking?
Maybe some over there don’t have a “love of the status quo” – they’ve made that clear- but of the law and the City Charter, and think they should apply to all including the lawyer supposed to enforce them. He’s not supposed to think he’s above it because he can twist the laws against who he wants using OUR army of cops and secret police to intimidate those who don’t bow down. Now there’s a novel thought! Instead he’s got a wall plaque in his office actually boasting, “The weak do what they must, the strong what they will.”
7:16, you must be part of the janitorial team or an unhappy city lawyer to know what hangs in his office.
How often have you been told the money is in a list, the money is truly in a responsive list.