It’s a clearance sale of historic proportion signaling how low the value of daily newspapers is sinking: The Daytona Beach News-Journal’s Halifax Media on Thursday bought the 16 newspapers that formed the New York Times Regional Group for $143 million in cash. Each title went for barely $9 million, less than half the $20 million Halifax Media paid for the Daytona Beach News-Journal alone when it acquired that paper in April 2010–at discount from the $300 million price originally set by a federal judge in 2006.
“We are expecting the actual closing to occur sometime in the next few weeks,” Michael Redding, publisher of the News-Journal, wrote in an email to the newspaper’s 380-odd staffers Thursday, appending the New York Times’ press release on the sale. “I wanted you to hear the great news before it was published in our News-Journal publications.”
The New York Times acquired the Regional Group properties over several years. When it bought three of them from Cowles Communications in October 1970–The Lakeland Ledger, the Gainesville Sun and the Ocala Star-Banner–it paid $50 million in Times stock, the equivalent of $292 million in inflation-adjusted dollars. The acquisition included Family Circle magazine, WREC-TV, a Memphis television station, and a publisher of high school textbooks. Revenue for those properties for the nine months ending in Sept. 1970 was $36.3 million, or $212 million in inflation-adjusted dollars. The New York Times Regional Group’s entire revenue for the first nine months of 2012 was $190 million, a 7 percent decline compared with a year earlier. From 2008 to 2009, advertising revenue at the Times regional properties fell 30.2 percent.
This morning Times Co. stock was trading at $7.71 a share. The stock price has languished around $10 or below since the second half of 2008. It hit its all-time peak in 2002, when it reached $50 a share.
Most newspapers across the country reported the pending sale earlier this month when Halifax Media’s website prematurely posted a redesigned home page listing itself as the new owner of the regional chain. The News-Journal remained mum about the sale until Thursday. Today’s editions carry a two-line paragraph about the sale, and a reprint of the news release prepared by Halifax and the Times.
Employees at the former Times regional group’s papers got a starkly different sort of internal email. “How many employees will be retained by Halifax?,” went one question. Answer: “That decision will be made by Halifax, but they have committed to making offers of employment to the vast majority of employees. You will be notified within the next 48 hours whether the buyer will be offering you employment.”
“What is the process for determining who will be hired? Halifax has decided who it will hire. Again, you will be notified within the next 48 hours whether the buyer will be offering you employment. The New York Times Company has not been involved in that decision.”
The statements are adding to a considerable amount of quaking-in-the-boots across former Times properties, most of which have centrist to liberal editorial boards, as opposed to the News-Journal’s more reactionary tendencies since Redding’s take-over. Publishers in other papers, such as Jerome Ferson at The Ledger, are positioning themselves on the best of terms with their new boss, if through clenched teeth: “Today marks yet another milestone in our history ,” Ferson is quoted as saying in The Ledger. “As the door on one epoch closes, a new one opens, though our commitment to provide reliable, accurate and compelling news and information is unwavering.”
Immediately before acquiring the News-Journal in 2010, 48 employees were offered severance packages there in what proved to be the last in a series of large lay-offs dating back to 2007, reducing the paper’s ranks by half the 800 employees it had at the height of the housing boom. Several employees have since resigned or been fired in a mixture of natural turn-over and outright terminations.
The paper’s daily weekday circulation continues to decline (26.7 percent since 2008), as has circulation at the five New York Times regional papers in Florida–The Ledger in Lakeland (23.5 percent), the Gainesville Sun (26.3 percent), the Ocala Star-Banner (34.4 percent) and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune (24.2 percent). The regional group also included the smaller News-Chief in Winter Haven.
The group’s newspapers have received three Pulitzer Prizes, including the 1971 Prize for editorials in The Gainesville Sun on the peaceful desegregation of Florida’s schools, the 1997 Prize for spot news photography for The Santa Rosa, Calif., Press Democrat for a photograph of a firefighter rescuing a teenager from raging floodwaters and the 2011 Prize for investigative reporting for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune’s year-long series on the challenges that Florida’s property insurance industry have posed for ordinary citizens.
“These news organizations have served as trusted institutions in their communities, delivering news and information that matter most to their readers,” said Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman of The New York Times Company. “The sale of our Regional Media Group will enable The New York Times Company to continue our transformation to a digitally-focused, multiplatform media company.”
Redding’s quote in the release: “The purchase of the Regional Media Group reflects Halifax Media’s belief that a good newspaper is an essential part of any vibrant community. The strong local news coverage these papers provide represents not only an important community service, but, in our eyes, a good investment. We have been impressed with the newspapers’ reputations as well as the markets they serve. When you have the opportunity to purchase solid news products located in great markets, it is very compelling, and we are excited to have the Group join Halifax Media.”
The Regional Media Group comprises the following publications:
Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Sarasota, Fla.;
The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif.;
The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla.;
Star-News in Wilmington, N.C.;
Herald-Journal in Spartanburg, S.C.;
Star-Banner in Ocala, Fla.;
The Gainesville Sun in Gainesville, Fla.;
The Tuscaloosa News in Tuscaloosa, Ala.;
The Gadsden Times in Gadsden, Ala.;
The Courier in Houma, La.;
Times-News in Hendersonville, N.C.;
Daily Comet in Thibodaux, La.;
The Dispatch in Lexington, N.C.;
Petaluma Argus-Courier in Petaluma, Calif.;
News Chief in Winter Haven, Fla.; and
North Bay Business Journal in Santa Rosa, Calif.
The regional group has a combined circulation of 433,251 and 1,755 full-time employees. Both numbers are likely to decline.
Florida Newspapers' Weekday Circulation, 2008-2011
| Weekday Circulation | Percentage Decline or Increase | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newspaper | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2010-11 | 2008-11 |
| Bradenton Herald | 38,064 | 34,142 | 29,962 | 28,612 | -4.5 | -24.8 |
| Daytona Beach News-Journal | 83,272 | 67,937 | 63,902 | 61,023 | -4.5 | -26.7 |
| South Florida Sun Sentinel | 183,533 | 153,563 | 149,892 | 147,860 | -1.4 | -19.4 |
| Gainesville Sun | 39,392 | 33,668 | 32,105 | 29,024 | -9.6 | -26.3 |
| Jacksonville Times-Union | 127,661 | 109,476 | 108,926 | 108,565 | -0.3 | -15.0 |
| Lakeland Ledger | 54,033 | 47,872 | 44,874 | 41,309 | -7.9 | -23.5 |
| Florida Today, Melbourne | 67,975 | 60,926 | 60,165 | 59,038 | -1.9 | -13.1 |
| Miami Herald | 210,884 | 162,260 | 151,612 | 160,505 | +5.9 | -23.9 |
| Orlando Sentinel | 206,366 | 181,090 | 172,271 | 171,418 | -.0.5 | -16.9 |
| St. Augustine Record | 17,056 | 16,034 | 16,086 | 16,701 | +3.8 | -2.0 |
| St. Petersburg Times | 268,934 | 240,147 | 239,684 | 240,024 | +0.1 | -10.7 |
| Tampa Tribune | 187,691 | 152,568 | 145,045 | 138,172 | -4.7 | -26.4 |
| Sarasota Herald-Tribune | 84,291 | 70,481 | 66,352 | 63,864 | -3.7 | -24.2 |
| Palm Beach Post | 134,350 | 114,336 | 100,830 | 95,620 | -5.2 | -28.8 |
| Fort Myers News Press | 68,522 | 60,325 | 56,834 | 54,761 | -3.6 | -20.0 |
| Naples Daily News | 42,369 | 42,002 | 48,649 | 45,146 | -7.2 | +6.6 |
| Ocala Star-Banner | 45,186 | 40,403 | 31,718 | 29,625 | -6.6 | -34.4 |
| Tallahassee Democrat | 47,302 | 39,130 | 36,670 | 32,673 | -10.9 | -30.9 |
| Charlotte Sun | 37,241 | 35,724 | 35,445 | 34,569 | -2.5 | -7.2 |
| Treasure Coast News (Stuart) | 89,448 | 76,863 | 66,850 | 66,989 | +0.2 | -25.1 |
Donna De Poalo via Facebook says
It is so frustrating. I wish the people running newspapers would get ahead of the curve just once. Good grief.
Tom Brown says
What I find really bizarre is the NYT’s statement that it was approached by Halifax and it did not go shopping for other potential buyers. If true, does this mean no one else out there is buying pretty decent print newspapers — or was the NYT in such a desperate rush for money it simply grabbed the first offer? My guess is Halifax will simply flip most of these papers within 2 or 3 years as the economy improves. Most of them are in cities small enough that there won’t be significant online competition, so the papers do have some enduring value. On the other hand, Halifax may well run them into the ground, alienating readers and advertisers alike. We certainly see that happening locally.
Tom Brown via Facebook says
Once again, PT, thanks for a rapid response and filling in some of the gaping chasms in the N-J’s coverage. This is no fault of the N-J newsroom. Management obviously is calling the shots.
rickg says
This doesn’t sound good for business….. this doesn’t sound good for anyone.
NortonSmitty says
Now fill in the gaping chasm in the mysterious funding and backers of this new and powerful media conglomerate. When they were handed the NJ by the courts, we assumed they were just a small time company that would do it’s best to make it pay or ride it into the ground. Suddenly. they have this much pull?
Where is their money coming from? Who is backing them?
kenpc says
This a well written, detailed and informative article.
It is diminished for me by the author’s apparent bias.
This story describes the former Times properties as being centrist to liberal. It describes the the News-Journal as more reactionary. The opposite of liberal is conservative. The opposite of reactionary is radical. If the author is calling the Times properties centrist to liberal, it would have been appropriate to call the News-Journal centrist to conservative. I guess that language would not have been sufficiently pejorative.
Lefty says
I think that Halifax Media will run these print publications into the ground.
These will begin or continue to run “selective news.”
The last time that I read the News-Journal, I read a article that tried to build up John Tanner prior to the State Attorney election a few years back as he faced off with R.J. Larizza. Said article went into granular detail about John Tanner’s encounter with a bear and how he shot it with a bow and arrow as it was upon him. In the same article Mr. Tanner discussed his encounter with Jesus Christ, along with the hysterical blindness that ensued throughout the divine encounter. AND THEY (The NJ) WERE SERIOUS!
Not long after – they were sold to Halifax Media.
Still the same fluff and filler every day!
It seems as if the advertisers and local politicians have a say in the content of the paper.
How on earth do they sell ANY newspapers?
The only entertainment value the NJ had was the “back-talk” section for the readers.
I would read the online version of the paper daily, just to read the comments.
It was pure comedy.
You came away with an idea of the education level of the average reader.
There were the occasional intelligent posters who embarrassed the NJ.
There were numerous semi-literate posters who also embarrassed the NJ on a daily basis.
And there were the daily “spell-checkers” and trollers……
There’s nothing to make me read their paper(s), online or print.
Halifax made a bad newspaper worse.
I can only imagine what lies ahead for the recent acquisitions.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL,
“Lefty”
Doug Chozianin says
Can the New York Times itelf be next? I hope so.
When you emulate Air America in print, failure can’t be far behind.
Scott Schwebke says
Best explanation so far of Halifax Media’s purchase of New York Times regional papers. Why is Halifax Media buying papers in this economic climate when everybody else is shedding them?