Gannett sells Rockford (Ill.) Register Star
Gannett announced to day it was selling the Rockford (Ill.) Register Star and three other newspapers to Gatehouse Media, Inc. Gannett has owned Rockford for precisely 40 years this month.
The deal also includes the Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin, The (Utica, N.Y.) Observer-Dispatch and the (Huntington, W.Va.) Herald-Dispatch. The sale price was reportedly $410 million.
And, as Editor & Publisher points out, this comes a day after Gatehouse Media bought nine papers from Copley for $380 million.
The official notice, from the publisher in Rockford:
Dear Employees,
Today the Gannett Company announced that they are selling the Rockford Register Star as well as three other newspapers to GateHouse Media, Inc. The transaction is suppose to close sometimes in May.
I know that for most of you this comes as quite a surprise. It certainly did for me when I first heard the news.
There are usually a couple of key questions that I have received when delivering this news:
1. What about me and my job?The good news here is that everyone’s jobs are safe and they are still employed at the Rockford Register Star.
2. Why would Gannett sell us?
Scott Bowers probably had the best analogy. When is the best time to sell your used car – when it needs new tires and an engine overhaul, or when it has new tires, an engine overhaul, and the paint looks new.3. What about the management team?
The management team will stay intact with the newspaper under its new ownership. Only Advertising Director Lani Renneau will leave the operating committee. Lani will become advertising director in Kenosha, WI, next week. It allows her to live close to her family once again.
We will be posting other commonly asked questions and answers to help you understand what is involved in this transition.It certainly is a bittersweet time. It will be hard to say goodbye to a company that has provided us with many wonderful opportunities. The Rockford Register Star has been in business 152 years. During that time we have had six different owners. Gannett bought the Register Star in April of 1967, so this month marks 40 years that Gannett has owned the Rockford Register Star. During that 40 years Gannett has been a good steward of the News Tower, its staff and our customers. I personally have been with the Gannett Co. for 23 years.
The exciting part of the transition is joining a relatively new media company that is growing immensely. With the Gannett additions, GateHouse will own 88 daily newspapers, of which 19 are in the state of Illinois. The Rockford Register Star is the largest daily newspaper in the company and with so many newspapers in Illinois there are many possibilities.
The GateHouse and Register Star business models are almost identical: serve as the primary source of local news, information and advertising across multiple platforms.
We believe this is an excellent opportunity for the Register Star as we transform from an ‘old media’ company to one that delivers local news and information to local audiences across multiple platforms.
I know there will be many questions over the next couple of weeks. Sometimes we will be able to give you an immediate answer, other times we will have to find the answer. I ask that you be patient during this transition. I think this will be an exciting time for all of us.
Best wishes!
Fritz
Fritz Jacobi
President and Publisher
Find the E&P story here:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003571148
