Posted on 12/26/2006 2:48:16 PM PST by shrinkermd
McClatchy Co. said it plans to sell the Star Tribune of Minneapolis to a private-equity firm for $530 million, in a move to reduce debt.
McClatchy said it decided to sell the newspaper to Avista Capital Partners through a private bidding process "after a strategic reevaluation of its portfolio of holdings" following McClatchy's purchase of Knight Ridder earlier this year.
McClatchy said it expects a future cash tax benefit equal to about $160 million related to the sale, putting total cash proceeds at about $690 million. McClatchy purchased the Star Tribune from Cowles Media in 1998 for a total of $1.2 billion, after taking into account McClatchy's concurrent sale of Cowles's magazine and book-publishing businesses
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Implications for editorial slant?
McClatchy said it expects a future cash tax benefit equal to about $160 million related to the sale, putting total cash proceeds at about $690 million. McClatchy purchased the Star Tribune from Cowles Media in 1998 for a total of $1.2 billion, after taking into account McClatchy's concurrent sale of Cowles's magazine and book-publishing businesses.
McL took Gyllenhaal with them to Florida to another losing entity.
I don't know. In Minnesota those with advanced degrees now vote RAT by a slight margin. This is the base they have counted on come good or bad news.
They have eliminated conservatives from their repertoire except for Kersten who is pedestrian at best.
Bought the paper 8 years ago for $1.2 billion, selling it for less than half that. Sounds like McClatchy took a major bath on this one. They must figure it's best to get something out of the paper than continue to watch it decline in value.
It can't get much more liberal. It's insufferable.
They are the most PC paper you can find in the US.
Must make you long for the good old days of Jessie the Mind.
Hey! That's one (of a number) that bars us from posting their commie-sympathizing articles, isn't it? ;)
And I will bet that the editorial staff of this paper has spent hours whining about "tax breaks for the rich" and oil companies windfall profits.
They think Ellison is wonderful!
We're all "better people" for electing a Muslim.
It's enough to make you cry.
McClatchy faces a large tax bill from selling off 12 other newspapers earlier this year as part of its purchase of Knight Ridder. It said the tax benefit of selling the Star Tribune at a loss is worth $160 million, raising the total value of the deal to $690 million. McClatchy said it would use the money to pay down its Knight Ridder debt.
McClatchy chairman and CEO Gary Pruitt said in a written statement that the Star Tribune "is a profitable business that has generated significant returns for the company over the years. However, as we continue to analyze our business following the Knight Ridder acquisition, it became clear that selling the Star Tribune strengthens McClatchy's competitive position."
"This deal came about because of very specific conditions involving the Star Tribune and today's changing media landscape. We have no plans to sell any other newspapers," Pruitt said in an e-mail to McClatchy employees.
Avista does not own any other daily newspapers. It was founded in 2005 by seven former partners and nine former professionals from DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, the private equity affiliate of Credit Suisse Group, according to the statement announcing the sale.
"Avista is a company that believes in the future of newspapers and is strongly committed to the success of the Star Tribune," Publisher and President Keith Moyer told Star Tribune employees in an e-mail.
"I have had the opportunity to get to know Avista leadership quite well recently, and I can say this without hesitation: They are progressive, very smart, good-hearted people who believe that no other media platform can reach a local audience as effectively as newspapers and their product extensions," Moyer wrote.
Moyer said he would report to Chris Harte, a member of Avista's executive advisory board, who will also be named the newspaper's chairman.
Hey Dave! Have ya seen this business?
Hopefully, they get over this soon. If I were them I would fire the Publisher, Syl Jones, Lileks Nick Coleman and Grow.
I can't imagine anyone in the target audience reading any of them.
The newspaper cannot succeed with the focus on North and South Mpls and some idea of returning the burb residents to the magical city of Mpls. Nope!
They need to go after the "some college" and "college" types in the burbs and exhurbs. These people do read. Getting the very young is going to be harder but could be done to a degree with some better and more imaginative writers. That should be their target.
I would go out and poach the NYT for David Carr. A far leftie, but writes beautifully and capable of thinking about what he writes and does not simply copy the reigning RAT wisdom of the day. He wrote for City Pages and as the saying goes, "he was not just liked but well liked."
Keep CJ and all the sports people. Puff sports! Keep Kersten for a while. She is the lone non RAT writing. Pedestrian, dull and so forth but honest.
Do that and you might make some money. Why you need all those reporters besides your commentary also mystifies me. They seldom report on much but something feel good about the city.
Mpls is poorly and expensively governed by the pinkos. A big story should have been why Sabo didn't endorse early and why Reichgot Junge ran. Just proves the RATS are not only goofy but dumb. People would have eaten that up, but instead all they offered was "we love the Black people and so does our paper even though Ellison does not have much going for him.."
Alternatively, they could also buy the Pioneer Press--it would go cheap--and make one an Examiner.com type publication that is free and targets the whole metro area for free with the Strib being for the intellectuals and old folks like me.
If they have the money to do this, they must have some kind of business plan except doing another liberal effort at preaching to a narrower and narrower band of the liberal oriented choir.
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