Posted on 11/19/2004 6:07:02 PM PST by Dan from Michigan
Gannett to buy Michigan-based newspaper group
11/19/2004, 6:34 p.m. ET
The Associated Press
McLEAN, Va. (AP) — Gannett Co. Friday said it will buy newspaper group HomeTown Communications Network Inc. from the company's chairman and founder, Philip Power, for an undisclosed amount.
HomeTown publishes the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus of Howell, Mich. and 62 weekly and twice-weekly newspapers in Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky. The groups has overall circulation of more than 740,000.
HomeTown also controls community telephone directories, shopping guides and Web operations, McLean-based Gannett said.
Hometown, based in Livonia, Mich., expects 2004 revenue of more than $86 million. It employs about 780 people.
"I wanted the newspapers, telephone directories and other publications that I spent so much of my career building to wind up in good hands when I left," Power said in a statement. "I believe Gannett's hands are the best available."
Gannett's last acquisition occurred in July when the publishing company agreed to acquire 23 newspapers from Brown County Publishing Co., of Denmark, Wis.
About the only change is that I can't post any excepts of the Argus anymore on FR.
Gannett sucks.
The one newspaper we had in our little town for years was owned by Gannett - a constant diet of leftwing columnists, support for big-spending school boards, endorsement of 'rat mayors and councilmen, etc. - until about four years ago some young local renagade started a competitive paper which he gave away free at first just to build readership - my daughter went to school with him and claims that he's "crazy", but by now he's built a paid following as big as the original paper and by using local talent and taking strong stands against a lot of what was going on in town, which it turns out a majority of the public disagreed with, he's helped elect an almost totally new and very cost-conscious school board as well as an all republican council and mayor - even got us written up in the Philly media as the town with the "dueling newspapers" - Gannett is not necessarily the end of the world, especially in small town America.....
As a former Gannetteer, i can tell you what to expect: Year by year your local paper will be squeezed to remit more to their corporate masters, to prop up ill-advised schemes that can piss away the money on a nationwide scope. The worse your local paper covers national news, the more likely you'll turn to USA Today.
Nuff said.
There's been a lot of talk about a conservative paper getting started here(my county went 63% for Bush).
I thought there were FCC regs against monopolies such as this?
the conservatives have GOT to start more papers = and weeklies are a good way to go. They can be started without such a large outlay - and they are powerful -
We've allowed the liberals to take over our colleges, our schools, and our papers - and they are doing everything they can to get us off the radio.
They have spent the last 20-30 years getting all their ducks in a row to control the information to the public. The last 2 elections were supposed to bring to fruition all their hard work and plans.
Then along came "talk" radio and the Internet - and it slipped away from them. And they have not a clue how to get back in the driver's seat.
No wonder they're berserk - or more so.
Their leftist screed is the heart of central WI as they wiped out all the local news papers
"I thought there were FCC regs against monopolies such as this?"
Only if you're Sinclair, and want to broadcast a documentary which exposes John Kerry as a liar and traitor.
how about getting the washington times to go national?
long overdue.
one of the reasons that gannett does so well is because motels and hotels across the u.s. buy it and give copies to their guests.
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