Charles Apple

And, of course, selling The Weather Channel is the first step in Landmark Communications’ planned sale of its assets. Which would include my paper — The Virginian-Pilot — plus dailies in Roanoke and Greensboro, a slew of weeklies, TV stations and other media.

This, according to a brief story posted today at The New York Times‘ web site:

An investor group led by NBC Universal and two private equity firms appeared to be leading the bidding for the Weather Channel, as final offers were due Friday night, people briefed on the matter said. NBC, the Blackstone Group and Bain Capital were offering about $3.5 billion including debt, these people said.

$3.5 billion is a bit less than the $5 billion Landmark was reportedly hoping for. I guess it really is a buyer’s market.

The NYT piece said the winning bid could be announced as early as next week. Which fits with the timetable we had been given earlier.

After Jim Cantore (above) and the rest have been sold, Landmark can concentrate on selling its next-largest assets, including its three daily papers.

Read today’s NYT piece here. Read the most recent story — from May 19 — about potential buyers of the Pilot itself here.

Read our previous posts about the sale of The Virginian-Pilot: January 2, January 4, January 11, January 14, March 11.

Met Darren in Philly and flew together to Hartford. Drove to Waterbury. Drank way too much beer.

Left to right: Me, our host, Scott Griffin of the Waterbury Republican-American and Darren Sanefski of the Syracuse… aw, whatever the paper is in Syracuse.

Did I mention we had too much beer?

It’s not too late to take part in the Small Paper Summit, at the offices of the Republican-American, here in Waterbury Saturday. The registration desk opens at 9:30 a.m.  Read more about it here.

Tongue planted firmly in cheek, Kalamazoo Gazette design editor Kris Kinkade writes:

I’m so good, my work is hanging in a museum.

Former Gazette photo intern Lindsey Wuepper Tait snapped this photo while visiting the Newseum in Washington, D.C. last weekend:

Lindsey writes:

I was so excited when I saw the Kalamazoo Gazette in their awesome gallery along Constitution Avenue.

Kris, of course, designed the page. The lead photo was by Jonathon Gruenke.

Lindsey is now a photog with the Gloucester Daily Times, near Boston.

Read about the Newseum’s new building here. Read about the 20 freakin’ dollars they’ll charge you to get in here.

See more of Kris’ work here.