 |
Gannett and GateHouse Media shareholders have both approved a deal to merge the two companies, with New Media, GateHouse’s owner, acquiring Gannett for $1.13 billion. The transaction will create the largest U.S. media company in terms of print circulation.
The new company, which will keep the Gannett name, will own more than 260 daily publications, as well as hundreds of weeklies. In addition to USA Today, the current Gannett brings such papers as the Arizona Republic, Detroit Free Press and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to the deal, while New Media’s holdings include the Palm Beach Post, Columbus Dispatch and Austin American-Statesman.
The deal’s hefty price tag will necessitate equally hefty “synergies” (i.e. cost cuts). Management has promised to find $300 million in annual savings, allowing the company to pay off the $1.8 billion loan that New Media obtained from Apollo Global Management to help finance the deal. The loan carries an 11.5 percent interest rate.
“We have been working hard on integration planning,” said New Media CEO Mike Reed. Reed said he is confident that the company will realize the promised savings within 18 to 24 months. Gannett has already trimmed one-fifth of its workforce over the past two years.
Critics of the merger include the NewsGuild-CWA, which warns that it “will hurt the communities these media organizations serve.”
The nine-member board of the new company includes no current journalists.
Shares of New Media have slid 29 percent during the past week, hitting an all-time low of $6.68 at the close of the markets on Wednesday.
Michael Kaminer, who was responsible for the Observer’s “Power List” for the past 13 years, has cut ties with the publication... The New York Times Company continues the march toward its goal of 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027... The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is providing more than $6 million in funding to eight organizations working to address the challenges local news and information environments face along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Conservative outlets Fox News, Newsmax and the Daily Caller are holding back from signing Pete Hegseth’s edict restricting press access in the Pentagon... CBS News sees the first executive departure of the Bari Weiss era as head of standards and practices Claudia Milne exits... Indiana University shuts down the print version of The Indiana Daily Student.
Rothschild family plans to unload 26.7 percent stake in The Economist... STAT, a digital media company that focuses the life sciences, brings back Damian Garde, who anchored its biotech newsletter and podcast from 2016 to 2024... High Times officially resumes print publication (following its 2024 shutdown) with the release of a limited-edition, collectible 50th anniversary issue. 
CBS News is set to hand over its reins to The Free Press co-founder Bari Weiss as Paramount acquires her site for $155M... C-SPAN comes on board as an official media partner of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which is charged by Congress to lead the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence... A new Gallup survey says that the level of trust that US audiences have in the media has hit a new low.
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has named Kenneth Weinstein, former head of the conservative Hudson Institute, as ombudsman for CBS News.
