Two Prominent New England Dailies on the Block

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Autumn in New England and the leaves--and daily newspapers--continue to fall.

If you have oodles of cash on hand and a slight masochistic streak, you might contact Stevens, a privately held independent financial services firm, and put in a bid for The Providence Journal, which the Rhode Island Public Radio Website (www.ripr.org) reports is for sale.

ProJo's owner, Dallas-based A.H. Belo, which doled out $1.5 billion in 1997 to purchase the Providence daily and its associated tv stations, is looking to unload ProJo, so that it can focus its attention on its core market in Big D, according to the RIPR post.

Meanwhile, last week John Henry, gazillionaire owner of the Boston Red Sox and Boston Globe, told staffers at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette--New England's third-largest daily--that he was looking for an interested local party to purchase the T & G, which was part of Henry's  $70 million Globe acquisition from the New York Times (see "TUOL" post 8/6/13).  The Times paid $296 million for the T & G in 2000, which it folded into its New England Media Group, along with the Globe.

Couldn't have been too comforting for Worcester editorial staffers to read Henry's October 27 letter in the Globe titled "Why I Bought the Globe" that failed to even mention his T& G acquisition. No potential buyers have stepped forward, though Gatehouse Media, Inc., freshly emerged from a structured Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is rumored to be interested.

Pink-Slipped Journos Feeling Blue in R.I. & Mass.

The Providence Journal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's the same musical refrain: shrinking circulation, declining ad revenues and a redirection toward digital editions, but it has New England journalists singing the blues.

WPRI.com reported this week that The Providence Journal trimmed its 460-member workforce by 5 percent, including three photographers among the 23 employees given their walking papers. The Journal, which also saw 11 staffers accept a voluntary buyout in September, must make do with its remaining 10 photographers.

Journal parent company A.H. Belo pointed to sagging advertising linage, noting a 13 percent plunge in advertising revenue during the 3Q of 2012, compared to the same three-month period ending September 30 a year ago.

Meanwhile, The Boston Globe Web site, boston.com, reported this week that the Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. ("CNH") chain, whose stable of dailies includes The Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, Gloucester Daily Times, Salem News, The Daily (Newburyport) News, also slashed 5 percent of its 375-member workforce, cutting 21 jobs.

CNH, which is headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, did not detail which papers would be impacted, though it was reported elsewhere that the Eagle-Tribune (against whom the ink-stained staff of "TUOL" competed at a rival paper back in the day) lost a couple of reporters.

Newsrooms Continued to Shrink in 2011

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)The largest U.S. newspaper publishers last year combined trimmed their work force more than 7 percent, according to a review of Securities & Exchange Commission filings by Media Daily News (www.mediapost.com).

A.H. Belo, owner of the Dallas Morning News and Providence Journal, among other papers, slashed its job force by 13.6 percent compared to 2010 figures, while its revenues declined 5.3 percent. Media General shrank its newsroom personnel by 9.7 percent, almost matching a 9.1 drop in revenues.

Likewise, the Washington Post Co. newspaper division cut its work force 4.5 percent and suffered a 5 percent decrease in revenues. The McClatchy Co., which owns 30 dailies, reduced its work force by 11.5 percent and experienced a 7.4 percent drop in advertising revenues.

The Gannett Co. axed 6.7 percent of the workers in its publishing division as publishing revenues declined 5.7 percent. E.W. Scripps grew its television holdings, but cut 6.7 percent of its newspaper employees.

The New York Times Co. was the winner among the losers, as it were, lopping off only 2 percent of its newsroom staff, in line with a modest 2.9 percent decrease in revenues. Rounding out the depressing Media Daily News article, Lee Enterprises endured a 6.5 percent drop in staff size, while operating revenues were down 3.1 percent.